


Experiments

by Lunah_Peixvey



Category: Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: And strexcorp/Desert Bluffs, Angst, Body Modification, Brainwashing, Bullshit Science, But it's heavily based on how Night Vale works, But the idea doesn't take enough for me to bother adding the fandom, Constructed Reality, Crockertier, Dehumanization, Drug Use, Drugs, Eldritch Abominations, Electrocution, FUCK, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fantasy drugs, Fluff, For Science!, Fucked Up, Government Experiments, Heavy Angst, Honestly I love both Meenkri and Meenliope so, Human Experimentation, I got the idea for a lot of the mods from the Uglies series, Kankri is a radio host, Lies, Magic Technology, Meenah is a scientist, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Probably bullshitted science, Reconditioning, Recreational Drug Use, Science, Science Fiction, Self-Indulgent, Strexcorp is Crockercorp here, Torturing someone, Welcome to Night Vale stuck, so there won't be any characters from Welcome to Night Vale, the m rating is for gore and some suggestive themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2018-12-11 07:30:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11709726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunah_Peixvey/pseuds/Lunah_Peixvey
Summary: When Meenah woke up, everything was dark. After the initial panic of not waking up in her comfortable bed (even if that bed felt too big most days), she tried to become more aware of her surroundings. It wasn’t that easy, what with the lack of sight she couldn’t seem to get rid of no matter how hard she blinked her eyes.





	1. Chapter 1

When Meenah woke up, everything was dark. After the initial panic of not waking up in her comfortable bed, she tried to become more aware of her surroundings. It wasn’t that easy, what with the lack of sight she couldn’t seem to get rid of no matter how hard she blinked her eyes. 

She tried to touch her eyes but she realized she couldn’t move her hands. After an attempt to kick her legs, she realized she couldn’t move those either. It didn’t take long after that to realize the truth. There was a bag stuck over her head, along with metal cuffs on her ankles and wrists. As far as she could tell she was still dressed in her night clothes. 

Her head had been slumped, but she shot to attention when she heard a door open. A faint glimmer of light sprung up, making it clear that the bag was made of canvas, and soon it was tugged off of her head completely. She winced, gasping out softly in surprise. Blinking in the sudden light, Meenah’s surprise faded and squinted up at the person who tugged the bag off.

From her limited vision, the figure in front of her was merely a blurred shadow, no features distinguishable against the glare of the fluorescent lights. They didn’t talk to her, merely picking up two things. The hands moved too fast for her to see what they were, but soon enough she felt them get placed on her temples. Electrodes. Her eyes darted down and followed the wires until she found where the led. The metal box was inconspicuous, save for the blinking lights and the fact that it was most likely something that was going to be used on her.

Narrowing her eyes, Meenah quickly grew tired of her lack of sight. It put her at too much of a disadvantage, disregarding the fact she was bound. The figure stayed out of her clear line of sight, staying blurr. It was only when they spoke that she realized that it was a man, “Who are you? State your name and your profession.”

Her lips twisted into a scowl and she blinked at him, “Why the hell would I tell you that! Who the fuck are you? Where-” Her words cut off with a strangled gasp as a shock pulsed through the wires on her temples.

“You are not here to ask questions. You are here to answer them. Answering will give you a reward, failure to do so will result in a shock. Who are you? State your name and profession.” The voice drawled on, sounding almost bored.

The question wasn’t that hard, and that shock had well...had shocked her. “My- my name is Meenah Peixes and I do research.” At the mention of her research, she looked at the man’s coat. It was white, a lab coat (like the ones she had in her closet at home), and there was a pin on the shirt underneath. Red, and though she couldn’t exactly make out what the symbol is, but she knew deep down in her gut. Crockercorp. Of course. 

“Very good. Now, what do you think about my perfect and illustrious company, Crockercorp.” There was a placated smile on his face and she could only snarl at him.

“It’s fucking awful, you’ve done so much shitty stuff to the scientific community. Your company deserves to get shut down for it’s crimes! Go fuck yours-” Again she was cut off by a shock running through her head. A gasping breath and her fingers twitched out of her control.

“Wrong answer, try again. Failure to comply too many times will result in harsher reconditioning.” Meenah thought that he must be a robot. That empty smile never waved, the cold green eyes were unemotional, the voice stayed monotone, it was unnerving.

Then the full truth of his words hit her. Reconditioning. She’s heard stories of it, though she had never been the target of such. She thinks her boyfriend was the target of it a couple times, he couldn’t keep his too big mouth shut. But he always came back to her, so she’ll come back to him. Meenah is not going to let some suits or some labcoats take her away, even if she knows that they have the tech to do it. She’s Meenah fucking Peixes after all, and she doesn’t want to think about what happens if they get her.

Meenah was shocked out of her musing by another shock that left her reeling. Apparently the interrogator had asked her a question while she was thinking. A hard blink of her eyes and she gasped, looking up at the man, “Fuck you. Fuck your questions. I’m not answering anything.” A trickle of sweat ran down her temple and she grit her teeth.

“Failure to comply too many times will result in harsher reconditioning.” The words were repeated in a sing-song tone, the man fiddling with the remote. “Now, what do you think about the glorious company of Crockercorp.”

“I hate it. I hate it, and it’s horrible and it’s going to ruin everything. It will ruin my town and it ruined...it ruined our sister town and you ruin everything. Is there anything you won’t sink your claws into? Is nothing fucking sacred you fucking monsters?”

He kept smiling, “Of course things are sacred. Lots of things are, that’s why we need to take over! Now, now. Answer the question in the right way, or you’ll be taken into the real reconditioning room and you won’t be going back. We just need some information out of you and we’ll let you go. Let you go back to that stupid little podunk town of yours and that barely passable excuse for a radio host that’s so head over heels for you that he wants to keep you in a dead end town when you could be doing so much more!” His eyes were almost feverishly bright, and he was smiling so wide she thought his face would split.

“S-shut up! Don’t talk about Kankri like that, he’s so much fucking better than you could ever fucking think about. I am doing exactly what I wanted in Night Vale. I had scientists, I had so many mysteries to unravel.” She grit her teeth, preparing for the shock, “No. There is nothing to answer. Crockercorp is a bad company and it’s horrible.” The shock didn’t come, and she tensed more. With her eyes squeezed shut, all she could hear was the tap of his shoes coming towards her. The cuffs on her hands and ankles were unlocked, but before Meenah could lash out a needle was jabbed into her neck and her strength left her. 

 

“There we go, you’re going to be so much better when you wake up. Oh Meenah, we’re going to be such good friends, and you’ll be ever so happy when you come to.” She could feel him pick her up and throw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “And you’ll be so _productive _, I’m sure you’ll get assigned all of the best research jobs.” Blearily, Meenah could see the floor bounce in her field of vision, meaning she was either having a reaction to the drug that was numbing her brain or they were moving.__

__“Oh, and here we are!” His voice had gone back to that sing song tone, “I’ll see you soon, Meenah Peixes. After all, I am also a researcher.” It was only a few more minutes after hearing that when Meenah felt the world spinning as she was cuffed to another chair. More electrodes were placed on her body. Her temples and her chest and her arms._ _

__“W-wha-?” Still numbed by the injection, she could form the words of her question. Not that it would matter, as even that attempt was shushed._ _

__She had two more minutes of clear thoughts before headphones were slipped onto her ears and she could hear Kankri's voice, like it was a recording of his radio show. Then, the shocks began._ _

__Over and over until her mind went white and her body twitched. Jerking in unnatural movements and Meenah was left gasping for breath. Her brown eyes had rolled up in her skull and her mouth was open. Distantly, she could hear the sound change to another broadcast. The shocks died down and odd vibrations began, her eyelids fluttered. Unable to make out the words, she tried to quiet the white hot pain that was keeping her brain numb._ _

__Then, it stopped. The headphones were slipped from her head and the relaxing sound of whatever had been broadcasting was replaced with her own unsteady breaths. Footsteps came towards her and she felt a cool hand cup her chin. Gasping softly, she leaned into the hand even as it lifted her up to stare at the man to which the hand belonged._ _

__“Who are you? State your name and profession?”_ _

__“I'm...I'm…” It took a while to answer, which she know should have worried her, but it didn't, “My name is Meenah Crocker, I'm a scientist.”_ _

__“Very good. Now what is your opinion of our lovely company which shares your name.”_ _

__This time the words came easily, “It’s doing good All glory to The Condescension.” Her words were rewarded with a smile and a nod, then she was led to what she surmised to be a medical bay. There she was pushed into a bed with an IV hooked up to her arm. Meenah’s vision blurred and she sank against the mattress, her lips parted in a silent groan. Her vision double, then blurred out completely, everything going black._ _


	2. Chapter 2

Her eyes blinked open and she was met with a white ceiling, causing a small frown to twist her lips downwards. It was ugly, hospital ceiling. A shudder went down her spine at the memory of the last time she was in a hospital. Her brows furrowed when she couldn’t remember exactly when that was. The door creaked open and footsteps entered.

The mattress underneath her bent and forced her into a sitting position so she could see the man coming towards her. His hair was dark, wild around his head, complimenting dark brown skin. His eyes were nearly black, but sparkled like oil. She could also see the wary smile on his full lips, “Oh, thank the Condescension, you’re awake!” His voice, while deep, was light with cheerfulness.

Clearing her throat, Meenah tilted her head at him, “A-awake? I’m sorry, but. Who are you? And, more importantly, where am I?” Her vision was still blurry and she tried to reach for her glasses (she knew they must be around here somewhere), but she couldn’t move her arm. Glancing to the side, they were strapped down.

“You...don’t know me?” The man looked hurt, and he moved closer to brush a strand of her hair behind her ear, “Meenah come on, I’m Kurloz! I’m your best friend!” Meenah could feel her cheeks flush with guilt, how could she have forgotten someone who was this important to her? “Oh, I see they forgot to untie you. So sorry about that, but while they were doing your surgeries, you kept convulsing and this was the only way to keep you safe.” Reaching into his pocket, Kurloz pulled out her glasses and slipped them on her face.

Blinking as she got used to the clearer sight, she nodded her head, “Oh, surgeries? I can’t remember, why was I having surgery again?” A slight tilt of her head and she stretched her arms as the blood returned to them.

Kurloz smiled softly and chuckled, “Oh, they told me that your memory would be a bit spotty, but I’m sure that everything will right itself once you’re back on the schedule and working like a productive person.” Then he stood up from the medical bed that she was on, moving to scan something on his wrist. “There we go! You’re all checked out and good to go!” Smiling wider, he pressed a translucent orange pill bottle into her hand, “Follow the instructions on these, take them with the normal regiment.”

“Normal...regiment?” Meenah wrinkled her nose up and shifted off of the bed to unsteadily stand. Only to have Kurloz wrap his arm under her armpits and hold her up.

“Yes, the pills. Oh, don’t tell me they wiped your memory of that too! These doctors need to be more careful, especially with such an esteemed scientist such as you! Imagine if they had permanently damaged that perfect brain of yours.” He let out a gasp and looked over her with a more concerned eye.

A shake of her head and she tried on a smile, “I’m sure I’m completely okay, Kurloz.” She chuckled and tapped her temple. Her mouth was open to reply, probably with a witty joke, but then she was bent in half. Gasping and panting, her eyes were wide as she was thrown into feeling phantom shocks going along her temples.

When her hearing had subsided from the god awful ringing, Meenah could faintly hear and feel Kurloz calling her name and shaking her shoulder, “Meenah? Meenah are you okay? Would you like me to call the doctor?”

Her attempt to speak came out in a wheeze, but then she swallowed and waved him off, “I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” Another attempt, this time at a reassuring smile. Given Kurloz’s unwavering concern, it didn’t work.

Taking the pill bottle out of her hand, he glanced at the label before shaking two white pills into his hand and forcing her to take it. Kurloz didn’t bother handing her a glass of water, but as she straightened up she realized she didn’t need it. The white noise in her brain had subsided and she could think clearer. “All better?”

“Much, thank you.” Meenah’s voice has strengthened and she was a bit more steadier on her feet. 

“No problem, Miss Crocker. Happy to help,” he beamed at her and kept his arm around her waist, leading her out through the hospital doors and towards a shuttle.

Pushing her aboard, Kurloz moved Meenah's arm to flash her wrist under a scanner. She frowned as the machine chirped and welcomed her. The digital interface read, in big bold letters:

NAME: MEENAH CROCKER.  
AGE: 29  
RANK: C

Gesturing with her hand, Meenah raised her eyebrow at her companion, “How did it…?” Her words trailed off.

“Implant in your wrist, it makes it much easier for you to get into places quicker. Especially as a C rank, oh your parents must be so proud.” He clasped his hands together in joy before leading her to sit. There weren’t any windows in the shuttle and Meenah wrung the end of her shirt between her hands, “Nervous? Don’t be silly, here. Take one of these.” And again, Meenah felt Kurloz press a pill (this time light blue) into her hand, “It’ll make it all better.”

Raising her hand to her lips, she gulped down the pill and coughed to clear her throat, “Aren’t you s’posed to take pills with water?” Even as she said it, she could feel her energy declining, making her lean her head on Kurloz’s shoulder. “Are you sure that helps with anxiety?”

“You can be anxious if you don’t have the energy to be.” He moved his hand through her hair, and she yawned. He seemed to know exactly where to scritch, though she chalked that up to their friendship. He said they were friends, and she has no reason to distrust him. “You can sleep, I’ll carry you back to your room.”

A whine and she pulled away, rubbing at her forehead, “N-nah. I’m fine, I’ll be good. I just…”

“Just need to remember where your room is? Don’t worry, since we were so close before your accident, I know all of your details. Including your current assignment, which we will be working on together. Won’t that be fun?” He smiled at her, flashing bright teeth.

“Alright...that sounds fun. What’s the assignment?” Meenah was soon shushed by Kurloz putting a finger on her lips.

“Not here, it’s not something we talk about freely. Just trust me, okay? I’ll tell you all about it when we get back to your room.” They both moved forward as the shuttle stopped it momentum. Pulling her to her feet, Kurloz tugged her out of the shuttle and towards a vaguely ominous looking building. 

She couldn’t exactly place her finger on why it was putting her on edge, but she tensed and raised her shoulders. Kurloz chuckled quietly, placing his hand on the small of her back, “Sorry I’m just-”

“Shh,” He interuppted her again, “Relax, do you want another pill?” His hand went to his pocket, and she had to shake her head and move his hand away.

“No! I mean,” She tugged at the collar of her shirt, unwilling to get back into the daze that the light blue pills give her, “I’m fine. How do you have this many pills though? With the shit I’ve seen them do, I would think they’d be more locked down.”

Flashing another enigmatic grin, Kurloz flashed his wrist under another scanner. Information, in the same format as hers was earlier, popped up:

NAME: KURLOZ MAKARA  
AGE: 30  
RANK: EXECUTIVE

“See? I’m an executive, we get a sort of unlimited access to the different kinds of pills.” The arm that was just scanned was soon wrapped around her shoulders as he walked her to a glass elevator. “And trust me, if you’re just as good as you were before your accident, you’ll be right alongside me soon enough!”

She chewed on the side of her lip, “You keep mentioning that, that I had an accident. What are you talking about? Was that why I was in the hospital?” Meenah raised her eyebrow, her hand moving to feel her chest, feel the bandages underneath her surprisingly crisp work shirt. 

Kurloz nodded his head, pressing the button for the fifth floor, “Yes, and I’ll also explain that when we get to your room. I’d prefer to have you sitting down when I tell you the entire terrible story. And trust me, it hurt me so bad when you disappeared. I got so scared when one day you just didn’t show up at work! Oh Meenah, you always showed up to work exactly on time and worked so hard and were oh so productive every day. Only on Rest Days, those were the only times that you took off. I was one of the people that went to the boards, and had them go retrieve you, I just knew that you would be a valuable asset the company. So I had them go get you from those horrid Night Valers. Meenah, they just, they hurt you so bad! I think they need to pay.” 

His lips were twisted into a scowl and she stepped back, feeling the cool metal hand hold against her back. A glance down and she squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them she tensed up. Glass flooring, and her eyes flicked to the metal screen. Five floors up and the doors slide open.

“Oh, here we are! Fifth floor. Now, why don’t we fill you in on your entire life. Don’t worry, Crockercorp has been very vigilant in documenting everything about your life, about all of our lives. So there is nothing you will miss out on.” The lips that were previously set in a harsh scowl had reset to the casual smiles she was used to, “Now, let’s catch you up on your brilliant career!”

Meenah’s hand was grasped by Kurloz’s and she was tugged out of the elevator. Her lip was red and slightly puffed from her teeth being dug into it over and over again. What would she think of herself when she finds out who she is? Would she even like herself?


	3. Chapter 3

Kurloz pushed the door open for her, and she was slightly disappointed when she saw her room. It wasn’t anything impressive, square shaped and bare walls. There was a bed that ran along the entire back wall, and by looking at it, Meenah guessed that it was just big enough for her entire body. There was a walk-in closet, and a desk, along with a bedside table, but that was it. The bare minimum. Feeling Kurloz’s hand still on her back, she took the hint and sat down on the bed.

“I know, it’s bare bones. But, it’s not like you spend more than the mandatory six hours for sleep here. Always working in the lab, you fucking nerd. And you did- well still do- have the option to buy a house with your money that you get from being a scientist. But I guess you basically live at the lab so there's no use for a house!” A slight chuckle and he sat down in the desk chair. “Anyway, what do you want me to explain first, the accident or your past?”

“My past, that’s more important anyway.” Meenah ran her hand through her hair, and was surprised at how short it was. She felt like it should be longer, much longer, and she shivered.

“Oh, you really have changed. Hopefully when you get back into the routine, your old self will return bright as ever! After all, if your current mindset is that the boring past is more important than the bright, blindingly bright, supernaturally bright, burningly bright future and present, then you’ll never become an Executive.” His lips twitched into a momentary frown before straightening out, “Anyway, you don’t have all that remarkable of a life. I mean, no one does. Yours was just more, productive than anyone else’s! I mean, you were one of the innovators behind the recent advance in fluid technology. You even got an award for it, Meenah! Oh that was such a lovely day, hearing your voice on the morning announcements. Hell, I’m sure that there are pictures of you accepting the award Meenah, would you like me to find one?”

She nodded her head. After all, photographic evidence is one of the most reliable things. If you can’t see it, chances are it doesn’t exist. If nothing can see it, it doesn’t exist. Her eyes were trained on Kurloz’s hands as they pulled a tablet (slimmer than she would think scientifically possible) out of his suit pocket. It took a few seconds for him to draw the picture up thanks to a series of taps. Turning it around, Meenah was met with an HD picture of herself. The picture her was wearing a lab coat, holding a trophy. The picture was too large for her to properly see the engraving on it, and Kurloz didn’t seem in any hurry to show her how to zoom in. “Who’s this man? The one right next to me, with the galaxy…” Her words trailed off as her vision went fuzzy. Black spots appeared in her vision like she had stood up too fast, but she was still sitting. When everything straightened out, Meenah looked back at the photo. There was a man, and he was absolutely normal.

“The galaxy what?” Kurloz leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. His eyebrow was raised and his head was slightly tilted, “There’s no galaxy anywhere, unless you count the sky as a galaxy. Though, I suppose as a scientist you know all about the seeing eye and the galaxy that we cannot see but know is there.” 

“Scientist...I’m a biologist Kurloz. To talk about the galaxy, it’s much better to talk to an astronomer or an astrologist. I’m on here, on Earth. Safely in the biosphere. My..hehe, my _sphere_ of comfort if you will.”

He chuckled and moved to take the tablet back. “Very witty. Anyway, now that you have the scientific proof of you getting that award, allow me to continue.”

Kurloz hummed and darted his eyes from left to right as he thought, “Like I said, your life isn’t that remarkable, just very, very productive!” A light chuckle and he moved his hair behind his ears, “Only important thing is the future after all, the only time the past is important is if you made a mistake you need to correct. But you were very useful to Crockercorp, and there were even whispers of you getting an ASAP project.” Kurloz paused and then chuckled, “Oh! I guess you wouldn’t know how important an ASAP is. Well, an ASAP is a very high level experiment assignment that only the best scientists get. There’s rumors that only people they’re planning on making executives get them. Hopefully you’ll get assigned one after you get back into the swing of things here at ol’ Crocker!” His hands were clasped together and he was smiling wider than she had previously thought possible.

“Oh? That sounds nice, I have a feeling that I definitely would that like.” Ignoring her words, her tone betrayed her. In truth, Meenah was unsure of everything. She was sure that she had seen that man in the photograph, but different. And she could almost remember what the engraving on the trophy was and she was near positive that it was not something for fluid technology. “You mentioned Night Vale before,” A change of topic, Meenah forcefully breaking herself out of her thoughts, “What is it?”

The wide smile fell away and he gave a slight huff, “I don’t know why you would want to know! It’s a far lesser town than our lovely burg, and so drab and so, so dry. They refuse to adopt our, well your, fluid technology, and so they are so far behind us technology wise. All thanks to you! Hopefully, the plans will go through to spread our reach into their town and they can see the Light.” Kurloz grinned and glanced at the ceiling. “Anyway, would you like to hear about the project you’ll be working on?”

Meenah nodded her head, fingers fidgeting in her lap, “Yeah, uh. Is this the ASAP? Or am I not assigned to one of those yet.” Her hand came up to tuck a curl behind her ear and she shifted her eyes to the side, “Sorry for being so scatter brained, dunno what's up with me today.”

Kurloz chuckled and shook his head, “Oh don't worry your bright little brain over it, Meenah! And actually, yes! We got assigned to an asap together and oh we are going to have so much fun together! Okay so!” He pulled the tablet out again and moved onto the bed, close enough to Meenah that their shoulders touched, “New samples came in from somewhere on the field and we have the responsibility of figuring out exactly what it came from and what it’s properties are! None of the other scientists have any clue what it is, but they’re hoping that by bringing in another brain, they’ll get to the bottom of it quicker! You’ll have a team of five, excluding me because I’m only working with you part time until you get back to your brightest and most productive self!”

Meenah's own smile was starting to grow, her companion’s excitement was so intense it was infectious. She couldn't stop a light laugh from bubbling up from her lips and she nodded, squeezing his hand back, “Oh, that sounds neat! Getting another trophy sounds neat, working hard sounds neat, becoming an executive sounds neat. It all just sounds so...so neat!” Her hand came up and tucked more hair behind her ear, “So, what's the information that we do have? I love a good mystery!”

“Oh! It's super super secret, but let's just say we had someone, no. Something attack our scientists out there in the field. It had glowing spots and according to our marine focused biologists, the spots seem to function like bioluminescence, but it doesn’t have the right chemical balance to be that! Intriguing isn’t it?” Kurloz shivered playfully and nudged her, “We have a few samples from him. A part of a tentacle, some pieces of skin that our researchers managed to rip off of it, and I believe maybe some strands of hair. Isn’t that interesting? We could find an entirely new species! You could get a patent on it, maybe even get to name it.”

“He.”

“What?” Kurloz’s face contorted into something that looked a lot like fear.

“You said ‘We have a few samples from him’. You called it a he.” Meenah's fingers twitched and she could feel a sort of tickle at the back of her brain. An itch she felt like scratching. “Anyway, what kind of creature could it be? Not many things have both tentacles and hair. Hell, not many things with tentacles can survive out of the water!” She ran her hand through her hair.

Kurloz dismissively waved his hand once she finished talking, giving a slight and short laugh, “Oh! It's just that. Well you know how I said that it looks like a human but isn't? Well, it looked like a human male, with some differences, so that was just a slip of the tongue. That thing we're testing on is definitely not human and should not be referred to as such. Put that thought out of your mind.” And though his words were said in the same cheery voice, Meenah could read the underlying threat of ‘or I'll put it out of your mind for you’. “Anyway! It’s very interesting, I know. But you’ll have time enough to ask all these questions and find some answers tomorrow, with your fellow researchers.”

So she just nodded and tried to find the itch again, but it was gone. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed, “Alright, it's out of my mind. I just wondered about the sudden pronoun lapse.” Her hand came up to rub her eyes and she let out a yawn.

Kurloz's eyes darted to the clock and gasped, “Oh shit, it's almost the mandatory curfew. I really should be going back to my house.” A pause as he stood up, then he gestured at the bedside cabinet, “Check the drawer for a bag, take both of the dark blue pills inside once you've gotten ready for bed, and then lay down. When you wake up, check the drawer again and take the two pink pills and meet me outside the complex once you're all ready for work tomorrow.” A flash of a cheery smile and Meenah was left alone.

A glance at the camera that had come out of the ceiling in the corner to the right of the door. Meenah sighed, regretting not asking more questions about their project when she could, and moved to get ready for bed. It seems that Kurloz wasn't lying about the pills in the bag (which was about the length of her hand and made of cloth), and she took both of them dry. Slipping under the covers, Meenah could already feel her brain grow foggy. Sedatives, more potent than the light blue pills too. Her eyes fluttered shut and she fell into a dreamless sleep.

It was almost like clockwork. When Meenah woke up, there was no grogginess and it was at 5:30 on the dot. Once she made her bed, she rushed through her morning routine and was almost out the door when she remembered to take the red pills. Turning around, Meenah's brow furrowed when she noticed that the bag with the dark blue pills was gone. She opened the drawer again and the bag was still there, this time with the promised red pills.

 

As promised, Kurloz was waiting outside for her. He flashed another smile and took her by the arm, simultaneously shoving a coffee cup into her hand, “Drink as we walk, you took longer than you're normally supposed to.” He tugged her towards the building, which loomed and provided shade from the sun, “Don't worry, I got your usual.”

Meenah nodded her thanks as she gulped down the coffee. It was just barely drinkable, but it burned her throat on the way down. She stayed silent as she felt the caffeine give her another boost, in addition to the pills. Kurloz led her into the building and then to an elevator. Inserting a key, he turned it and a panel swung open. Pressing the fourth level, they began their ascent. Kurloz was standing still and Meenah was rocking on her heels. 

“Are you nervous?” He raised his eyebrow at her, a soft smile on his face. “Don’t be everything is fine, you have a trained team of experts along with you. And I’ll be there, keeping an eye on you and making sure you stay in tip-top shape! You have a team of five other people, that’s a good amount of people for the amount of samples we have. You’ll be fine, Meenah Crocker, you know why?” He didn’t wait for her to answer, “Because you’re Meenah Crocker and you’re going to be the best and brightest scientist in that lab room!”

Meenah chuckled and shook her head, “Oh no. Okay well, I do think that information they have will be helpful, but no I wasn’t nervous. Just regretting drinking caffeine and taking whatever that red pill was. It’s making me kind of jittery, and I hope that won’t make me mess up any samples. Not sure being all flinching will exactly help such delicate procedures.”

Kurloz laughed with her and waved her off, “I’m sure you’ll be fine. Maybe the jitteriness can come off as first day back jitters and they’ll keep you away from the samples and just have you read the lab reports they’ve already complied. Now, come along, it’s our stop.” The doors slide open, and Meenah was led out of the room.

Soon enough she was met by a few more executives. Crisp white suits, some of them have lab coats and Kurloz greeted these with nicknames. Meenah smiled and shook hands, learning their last names (Strider, Lalonde, Crocker, English, and Umbrage). After sharing a laugh over their identical last names, Meenah was soon given a manilla folder and sent to sit at one of the desks. 

Flipping through the pages, Meenah found out more information about the samples. The tentacle moved on it’s own, and it was two inches in diameter and a foot in length initially. After various testing, pieces of it were now separated from the source to see how they react individually. When exposed to fire to the cut off piece, the main tentacle started writhing as though it was being burned. In the surprise, the scientist with the fire (the orange text denoted it as the Strider she met) didn’t notice that the piece he was burning had not...burnt up at all. What followed that was a small booklet of photos that Strider had taken of the results.

The Lalonde’s research was next. She was in charge of the hair samples. As it turns out, they were resistant to flame as well, no matter how large and how hot the flame was turned to. They just wouldn’t light, wouldn’t blacken, wouldn’t even smell. Here a pink gel pen notes that when sniffed normally, the strands smelled faintly of cherry (with a note in orange next to it “Why would you sniff them R?”). Meenah allowed herself to laugh out loud at this, her head rising from the paper to meet Miss Umbrage’s grey eyes. Sharing a smile, Meenah ducked her head and continued reading the research. Flipping to the pictures for the hair, she noticed that in certain lighting there seemed to be a shine to them that shouldn’t be possible in the lab lighting.

The skin samples were handled by both Crocker and English. They said the same things alone with the tentacle and the hair in regards to flame resistance. Though, according to the blue cursive scribbles, when placed under a microscope, the cells of the skin seemed to possess chloroplasts _and_ lysosomes. Though that should be impossible. Blue and green asterisks denoted that this was something that the Crocklish team will work on more.

That was the end of the report, save for a small sticky note with grey gel writing that said that C. Umbrage joined the team as an extra hand. Standing up, Meenah nodded at the scientists at the desks and moved to put on gloves and goggles. Flashing a smile at her new team, Meenah made her way to where Dirk was bent over a tray. “Well? Ready to get started?”

“You bet.”


	4. Chapter 4

“You bet.” 

Strider smiled at her, orange eyes gleaming. “I suppose I should introduce myself to you fully. Full names should be known for optimal productivity.” He held his gloved hand out, “Dirk Strider, it’s nice to meet you.”

Meenah took it, squeezing his hand as she gave it a firm shake, “Meenah Crocker, it’s nice to meet you Dirk Strider.” Turning towards the tray, she found out that it was the main tentacle she was looking at. “Dirk, is it just me or does it look-”

“Purple with red spots? Yeah, that’s what it is. I’ve had Callie-”

Meenah held up a hand, stopping him, “Callie? Is that one of the girls over there?” She waved the hand that stopped him in the general direction of the other teammates.

“Yeah, she’s Umbrage. Calliope Umbrage, but we all just call her Callie. You’ll learn all of our nicknames eventually.” A crooked half smile, “We do have an ASAP to work on all together.”

Meenah chuckled with him, nodding her head as she turned back to the tentacle, writing against the pins holding it down. “Back to what you were saying, b’fore I interrupted you...” She raised an eyebrow at him.

Dirk cleared his throat and nodded his head, “Right, yeah. As I was saying, I’ve had Callie take pictures of it under all sorts of lighting and that’s what it is. Extremely dark purple with red spots. The night testing we’ve done has shown that it’s luminescent under both natural darkness and UV lights. The red splotches glow the brightest and most notably, but the entire tentacle seemed to pulse with some sort of energy. It’s not magnetic, I tested that before you can in.” He gestured with his scalpel to the computer running next to him, “We take notes online, that way the guys up there can see them easily, and we can read each other’s handwriting.” Dirk turned around and tossed a scrap ball of paper at Crocker’s head, “Because some of us write in fancy cursive that isn’t decipherable by anyone by them!”

“And some people’s handwriting is just chicken scratch! You can’t act like you’re perfect, D-Stride!” She called back, not even looking over her shoulder. The others in the room chuckled softly among themselves. Meenah gave a half smirk remembering how she had to look at the orange and blue scribbles several times before understanding them.

Dirk huffed and turned back to Meenah, “Now this is when I really wish that we had more of these tentacles. If I had a spare, I could cut this one up and see what’s inside of it. X-ray machines are useless. Even if I thought this thing had any bones or anything that could be seen on one, I attempted to put it in one and the entire thing exploded!” He winced slightly, hand coming up to rub at a scar peeking over the edge of his collar. “That got the higher up’s mighty mad. I can understand why, I wasted money and had to spend a day of work in the infirmary getting patched up.” His orange eyes shifted to cameras above them as he leaned in, close enough that his breath tickled her ear, “Off the record, I don’t regret it.” Before he leaned back and gestured for her to look at the tentacle. “Check this out, Meenah, it’s really weird.” Taking the scalpel, Dirk prodded the side of the tentacle with the pointed end. 

Immediately, the tentacle reacted. It strained against the pins holding it to the mat, the tip of it thrashing as well as it could. The redder splotches on it’s surface pulsed to what Meenah would liken to an unnaturally fast heartbeat.

“Oh, that’s right. In the report, you did mention that the tentacle moved around like it was still connected to a body.” Meenah frowned slightly, her brows creasing, “What kind of _nerves_ are in this thing? How is it that it can move without any sort of brain to send the information to.”

“It gets weirder. Some things you just need to see to believe.” Dirk took her by the arm, leading her to a separate dissection tray. On it was pinned down a one inch square of gelatinous flesh taken from the tentacle. Holding up the blowtorch, he held it to the square of flesh, and pointed with his free hand for her to keep her eye on the main tray. As the flame touched the piece of skin, the tentacle went back to thrashing against the metal pins. Not only that, but the square of skin itself had started to ripple (as if it was trying to move). “See! This was hard to capture on film, but I've tried it so many times, and without fail, it does it every time.” Dirk’s orange eyes sparkled along with a chain Meenah noticed around his neck. 

She made a note to ask about it later, not finding it productive to ask now. Her eyes were wide as she gazed at the tentacle, “Wow, you're right. Some things you really need to see to believe. How does it move like that? Does it move that when you try anything to this.” Meenah gestured at the second tray, then at the main one. 

“Yes! It reacts the same way that the square does to everything we do. Something that might interest you, though, is the fact that when all the others are testing on their specimens, the tentacle doesn’t react. I wonder if our scientists in the field were seeing things correctly. Considering how it reacts, I find it odd that neither sample reacts to the stimuli the other samples’ conditions.” Dirk ran a hand through his combed hair. “I wonder if these tentacles could come from a parasite attached to what attacked our scientists. Then, if we can find the same creature, we can take in for testing. Then we can get more samples from it, and maybe even find a way to free it from its parasite!" 

Meenah’s eyes went wide, her brain reeling as she attempted to piece together everything her coworker just said. Once she realize what he said, and what he truly meant, Meenah nodded and leaned to look better at the tray, “Hmm, well you know how we have the hair samples? Could we attempt to extract DNA and send it off to HQ for them to track down? That way, we can do your idea. Test the creature, see if it’s a parasite, and besides, I’m sure we can just cut off the tentacles from it. After all, it’s not human, and it’s in the name of science after all.” 

Dirk grinned and nodded, tugging on the sleeve of her lab coat and pulling her over to the blonde haired woman. “Roxy, we have an idea and we need you to do it. It’s your area of expertise after all.” 

Roxy Lalonde looked up from the microscope and she smiled at the two of them, “Oh? Whaddaya need from me, D-Stride? I’ll do my best, but these hair samples.” She rolled pink eyes (Meenah was sure they must be cosmetic), “The structure of the cells is annoying me. I sketch one of them, and it’s a normal animal-type cell. Lysosomes and all. Then I move on to the neighboring one and that has a fucking chloroplast!” Manicured hands ran through curly blonde hair, “This isn’t how cells are constructed, Dirk! This goes against the very laws of nature!” Roxy puffed her cheeks up. 

He rolled his orange (now that she thought about it, those eyes couldn’t be natural either) eyes and reached to pat her on the shoulder, “It’s fine, we don’t need the structure of the cells. We just need you to extract enough DNA to track this specimen down so our field researchers can capture it. After all, I’m sure we can _all-_ ” Dirk raised his voice so the others in the lab paid attention- “do with a larger sample base. Am I right, guys?” 

There was a less than quiet murmur of assent. The other man in the lab (English) just nodded his head and glared at his microscope. Crocker just rolled her eyes and smiled slightly, before turning back to her microscope. Expertly twisting the knobs and adjusting the slide. Calliope, a rather pretty girl sitting at the computer talking with Kurloz, turned her head for a moment and Meenah could hear her chuckle. 

Roxy herself nodded her head, frowning gently at her microscope, “It might be a challenge, but I can have it done if you-” She jabbed a pink painted nail towards Meenah- “can get your freaky little pal over there to get me on the Expedite regime. It’ll help me focus, y’know?” She arched a pale eyebrow at her, “So? Can ya do it?” 

Meenah hummed, glancing at Kurloz, then back at Roxy, “If I do get you that Expedite stuff, how long do you think it’d take you to get that DNA or RNA or whatever this creature has?” 

She hummed, tilting her head from side before answering, “Around seven or eight days, not counting the rest day coming up. Our implants don’t work on those days so I wouldn’t be able to come in. But you get your freaky friend to get me those pills, you’ll get what ya need in a week or so.” She stretched her hand out, raising a perfect brow, “We have a deal, Miss Crocker?” 

__A second or so of debate and Meenah grabbed her hand. For a scientist, Roxy had oddly supple hands. “We got a deal, and you can call me Meenah.” A crooked grin and she squeezed her hand before letting go and maneuvering over to Kurloz._ _

__He turned to her, raising an eyebrow, “Is everything going okay, Meenah? I saw that you were making nice with your fellow scientists. What can I say, you always were a people person.” Kurloz chuckled softly and gestured at Roxy, who at that point had turned back to her microscope, “What did you and the Lalonde shake on? You seemed to be pretty deep into conversation and discussion with Strider.” An arch of an eyebrow, “Is there a problem I should know about?”_ _

__Meenah shook her head, waving her hand dismissively, “No, no not all at all. We actually may be on the verge of a breakthrough!” Her eyes sparkled in anticipation, and she let out a short laugh of her own, “The only piece left is for Roxy to extract DNA, or RNA depending on what this creature has, and Roxy and Dirk both believe that we can get HQ to be able to find and track the thing.” Her hand moved to straighten Kurloz’s collar and she leaned in slightly, “Roxy said that what she needs to do the job, is get on the Expedite regime. She asked me to get you to give it to her.” Now she herself raised her eyebrow, “So, what do you say? In the name of science? And our friendship?”_ _

__Kurloz rolled his eyes, but nodded, “Fine, I can get on the regime. On one condition, I want to see all of you working as hard as you can on this project. And I want to see results.”_ _

__Meenah nodded her head, “Roxy said that she’d have results within around a week or so. We’ll get you those results for ya, Kur, don’t worry.” A half quirking of her lips and she moved back to her station with Dirk._ _

__Before she opened her mouth to warn him that she was behind him, Dirk spoke, “So?”_ _

__Meenah nodded her head, moving around to the other side of the table, “He’s going to get Rox on the regime she needs to get us results. Soon enough, we’ll have enough tentacles we can cut them up and dissect them until we understand everything.” A sharp smile at him and she chuckled, “Then maybe we can even get a damn award for our work.”_ _

__He tutted his tongue and waggled his finger at her, “Now, now Meenah. We do science not to get rewards, but for the sheer improvement of our-” He broke off chuckling, “Yeah no, we do it for gain. Gain for us or gain for Crockercorp, it’s all the same to us. Either way, there’s more cash in the bank when we go home at the end of the day.”_ _

__Meenah nodded in agreement, motioning for him to hand him the scalpel, “Do you think that when we finally capture it, we’ll have infinite tentacles? By that I mean, do you think that the beast is out there with all his tentacles grown back?”_ _

__Dirk shook his head, “No, the tentacles don’t regenerate. We would’ve seen either this one grow longer, or grow the patch of flesh I removed back. It’s done neither.”_ _

__“But maybe that’s because it’s not attached to a host. I mean, if you are right about whatever is giving the thing tentacles being a parasite of some sort, then it won’t be able to function like it should without a host.” Meenah frowned and leaned to look at the cut off edge of the tentacle._ _

__It was a lighter purple on the inside, red veins coming from the outside in towards the center. There was a circle of light pink, and then the middle was made out of an almost black purple color. Poking at it, Meenah scribbled down (in a red pen) how it thrashed and attempted to curl towards her._ _

__“We’ll need the full being to figure it out. So now, let’s be glad you have connects above and we’re finally getting somewhere.” Dirk tapped the pen against his lips and nodded at her, “I think we’ve done a lot today. Not to mention-” He looked up and to his right, at the digital clock- “It’s lunchtime.” Sliding the dissection trays into airlocked containment units, Dirk took off his gloves and tossed them into a trashcan. Looking over his shoulder, he grinned at Meenah, “Why don’t you eat with us today? That way we can get to know each other a lot better.”_ _

__“Sounds fucking amazing.” Meenah followed suit, taking off her gloves and hanging her lab coat on the hanger labeled with her name._ _


	5. Chapter 5

Lunch was uneventful, just mindless prattle about their work and what they figured out. Jane (who was the one who shared her name), Jake (last name English), and Calliope were very interested on how Meenah was going to get Expedite for Roxy. Throwing her napkin back onto the lunch platter, she shrugged, “I told you, I know that Executive that was tailing us in the lab. Turns out we’re butt buddies or something,” A light laugh into her coffee as she tipped her head back. “He has an unlimited supply of like, all the drugs. Plus, he loves me, I’m sure I can get you those drugs.” An easy shrug as Meenah rose up, gesturing slightly behind her, “Gimme a sec to ask my dealer.” A slight wink as she turned around.

Tugging her lab coat on, Meenah moved towards where Kurloz and who she assumed to be other executives sat. Tapping his shoulder, she coughed softly and pulled away from the table. She moved them into a hallway, giving them more privacy, “Kurloz, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to get Roxy Lalonde on the Expedite regiment. It's crucial for development in the assignment.” She puffed her lip out, using her perfect pout.

Kurloz smiled and leaned forward slightly, placing his hand on the wall above her head, “Expedite, huh? Yeah, I can get it for your friend, so long as I see results, fast.” He ran his free hand through his curling hair and nodded again, “I’m sure I can get one of our brightest scientists on a faster track. For the good of the company and sake of productivity after all.”

“For the sake of productivity, naturally.” Meenah stuck her hand out, grinning widely, “Roxy says she can get what we need in a week. Is that fast enough for you, Makara?” A raise of her eyebrow.

His hand took hers, gripping it professionally tight as he shook it, “You got yourself a deal, the first dose is tomorrow, not later today. Make sure she knows that.” A nod of his head and he left her in the hallway, going back to his executive friends. He sat down with them, easily laughing and joining in the conversation. Easy and relaxed as he punched the arms of his companions and said something that Meenah couldn’t hear that made the other erupt in laughter.

Meenah inhaled and puffed up her cheeks, before blowing the air out and going back to her table. Sliding back into her chair, she flashed Roxy a grin, “Expedite is coming to a pouch near you, tomorrow.” She tugged her hand through her hair, exhaling out, “I really hope you can get that DNA out in a week, Kurloz needs results fast.” 

Roxy grinned and her pink eyes sparkled, clapping her hands together, “I won't let you or your powerful creepy friend down, Crocker!” She giggled again and rocked in her chair, “It's at least been a year or two since I've been on Expedite! Ooh, I was so productive last time.” Twirling a strand of blonde hair, she gave a dreamy sigh.

Meenah cleared her throat, gesturing at Dirk and Roxy’s eyes, “Oh, right, that reminds me. Pink and orange eyes ain't possible in nature, so how'd you get them?” An arch of an eyebrow as she looked around at the others at the table, trying to see if anything else about them was odd.

Calliope answered instead, “Oh! I guess the surgery wiped your memory of surging! There's some very cool, and sadly expensive, places that can modify how you look! Eye color changes, body modifications, extra appendages. The whole deal!” She gestured at the two pale green swirls on her cheeks, “I got these beauties after finishing my very first ASAP project. Roxy and Dirk over there,” Her pale hand gestured at Strider, “got their eyes done together on a dare.” Calliope drummed her fingers on the table, “I’m pretty sure that one of the biologists that we got the samples from injected glitter into their eyes. Surprisingly, the glitter didn’t affect their ability to see, and was merely just cosmetic.” Her green eyes sparkled and she clasped her hands together, “That’s what we should do this rest day! We should take our new team member to get her very first surge!”

The other team members cheered and jostled Meenah with nudges. Jane’s blue eyes sparkled and the jewel embedded in the corner of her eye gleamed when it caught the fluorescent lights. “Oh, Callie that is such an amazing idea! One’s first surge is very important and a changing event, I’m sure Meenah would like to have her whole team there by her side!” Her dark skinned hand moved to tap against the aquamarine in her face, right under her right eye “This beauty connects me to the database, I can contact emergency services with a thought! Very useful for when experiments go wrong.”

Meenah grinned and nodded, leaning forward to inspect the gem better. Engraved on the surface was a white trident, the insignia of the company. Thin bright red lines extended from it under Jane’s brown skin, standing out like a spiderweb. “It looks...beautiful, Jane. But I got a question.” A pause as the scientists set down their silverware to look at her. Once she got all of their attention, Meenah continued, “Does it hurt? Will I need to take a day off to have it finish up?”

Dirk shook his head, looking slightly affronted, “Take a day off? Oh tell me you’re joking, Crocker #2. We don’t take days off, we work and we’re productive six out of seven days of the week. The seventh is a free day to allow people to spend their hard earned money. That being said, the surge doesn’t take long to heal at all. My eyes healed within the day. After all, if they didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to do any productive work if I was blind. The surge has been perfected to be fast healing, no matter what you do!” The affronted look faded away as he glanced around at the table, “Maybe we should all get a new mod, maybe even matching tattoos! If we work together perfectly on this ASAP, hopefully we’ll be reassigned together for the next project. I’ve had these three-” Using his fork, Dirk pointed out Jane, Jake, and Roxy- “with me on the past few projects I’ve been on.” His lips twisted into a soft frown and he scratched at his neck, “I’m not sure...how many projects. At least as long as I’ve been here.”

Meenah’s lips started to downturn, and she opened her mouth to reply when a chime was broadcasted, signifying the end of lunch period. In unison, her fellow scientists stood up with their metal plates. Meenah followed, a beat behind as she tried to follow into the invisible cadence they made. She ended up staying the beat behind and was a second late to the lab. Grey, green, blue, pink, and orange eyes stared as she had to hurry her pace to grab her lab coat and rejoin Dirk at the table. Her eyes darted to the ground and she cleared her throat, “Anyway. Dirk, do you still want me helping you, or should I trade off with someone else?” Brown eyes darted to the side as she heard the door open and shut again, Kurloz entering the room and hanging near the wall. Scratching the back of her neck, Meenah tried to ignore the feeling of his gaze and instead focused her own on Dirk.  
He nodded his head, “You can keep helping me. Tomorrow you can switch off if you’d like, but I’d prefer to have someone help me write everything down. I find it quite hard to do the experiments and write down everything that happens simultaneously.” A thoughtful frown. “Maybe I should put in a request for a surge that gives me the ability to type with my mind, that will definitely speed things up.”

Meenah moved to grab the tablet, fingers poised to type the results of whatever is coming next. “Put in a request? I thought you could just get the surge done on rest days. Why would you need to put in a request?”

Dirk grabbed the tray with the tentacle and placed it in between them, “Oh, you normally can, with exceptions. The main one being you need to put in a request for approval if it has anything to do with connecting your brain to the database of Crocker. Just ask Jane about it, she had to put in a request for that gem in her face.” 

Jane perked up at the mention of her name, and nodded her head. She called from across the lab, “Yup! Took them an entire week to get back to me, so I wasted a rest day looking at my tablet for the email. You got to show the surgeon the email before they’ll even get you prepared for it.”

Meenah hummed in interest and nodded her head, “Suppose that makes sense. They probably gotta make sure that the person getting the implant can’t royally mess up anything in the database, plus custom make the tech for it.” A slight shrug and she wheeled a chair over for her to sit in. “Maybe the team surge we get is gems just like Jane’s, that way we all match?”

Her idea was met with cheers from her team. Each of them calling out what gem they’d get in place of an aquamarine. Jake wanted to get an emerald at the corner of his left eye, Roxy wanted rose quartz at the corner of her right, Calliope a diamond and near her right. Dirk chuckled under his breath and mentioned that he’d enjoy a citrine under his left. Meenah chuckled and tapped under her right eye, “Seems like all the girls want them at the corner of the right, so I’ll do that too with a ruby!”

Dirk flashed her a smile, “Nice idea, but we’ll have to get that not this coming rest day, but the one after that. Maybe we can make it this coming one, but that’s if we submit our orders today.” His orange eyes darted to where Kurloz was behind her, “Or if you get your friend to get the higher ups to pay special attention and approve them and work them out earlier.”

She shook her head, “I don’t wanna ask him for too many requests in such a short period of time. Besides, it’ll still take them a long time to customize the tech for each of our brains, so they’ll get to it when they get to it. Besides...I don’t want my first surge to be something so complicated. Let me ease into it, Strider.” A slight smirk and she kicked at his shin under the table, “Now come on, these tentacles aren’t going to experiment on themselves. We have to be productive after all.”

Dirk scowled and kicked back at her shin, “Yeah, I know. Now get ready to type up everything you see. Don’t worry about spelling mistakes, you can correct those in post.” He turned his head to look at where Roxy was bent over the microscope, undoubtedly examining the hair samples, “Hopefully, tomorrow we can start making real headway.”

Meenah nodded, “Yeah. But how can we make headway tomorrow, if we don’t make headway today?” She tilted her head and raised her eyebrow, lips quirked upwards in a slight smirk. “Now get to poking the wriggling alien tentacle so I can do my job, Dirk Strider.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in two days?? Damn!! I wrote this entire chapter in one day.

The day went uneventful, just her group of scientists poking and prodding at samples. There was an anxious pause to the air, all of them waiting for the coming day. Waiting for Roxy’s new prescription to come and for the real progress to start. Meenah spent the remaining hours in the lab typing every movement the tentacle made and why. At the end of the day, her fingers ached and she had to physically lead Dirk away from the table to stop him from throwing their only sample across the room. 

They all looked up in unison when the chimes sounded, signaling the end of the work day. As they took their samples out of the machines they had been using, the machines started to power down. The fluorescent lights overhead dimmed down, a slow warning for them to exit before people came to see what was taking so long. Calliope went around, requesting for the note takers to share their data with her so she could compile the End of Day report. 

A few taps of Callie’s pale fingers showed Meenah how to share documents, and her cheeks flushed slightly. She knew she should know this. According to Kurloz, she was the best and brightest upcoming scientist. Now? Now she didn’t even know how to share documents. “Sorry for being so out of it,” Meenah mumbled as she took her tablet back.

“Oh, don’t pay it any mind, dear.” Calliope waved her hand, chuckling softly, “You just got back from a very arduous task. You need to give your mind and body to heal back up, Meenah.” She gave her a soft smile and her hand moved to loop around Meenah’s waist, “I believe in you Meenah, and you know you can always come to me, right?” An arch of a fair eyebrow.

Meenah nodded, swallowing down the lump in her throat, “Of course I do, and maybe I can take you up on that offer. Maybe next rest day, or even this coming rest day, after we get the surge.”

Her companion beamed at her, the tattoos on her cheeks seeming to swirl, “Oh! Really? Why, yes Meenah, that sounds so amazing, I’d love to spend time with you!” Pale grey eyes sparkled and the hand on her hip bone squeezed slightly.

Meenah smiled and took Callie’s arm off of her hip, she slipped her hand into Callie’s, squeezing her hand in return, “Perfect. After the surge, you can show me around, eh? Maybe find us a nice restaurant?”

Calliope’s cheeks flushed, and she squeaked slightly before nodding her head, “Oh, yes that sounds sublime, Miss Crocker. I know just the place!” A wide grin as they walked to the shuttle system, climbing aboard and standing next to each other, hand’s still in each other’s. “I’m very excited, if you do not mind me saying.”

“I most certainly do not mind, Miss Umbrage. The idea of having dinner with you after a very productive week and technically right before a newer, more productive week, sounds like just the thing I need. I’m sure you’ll find a lovely restaurant for the two of us.” The landscape passed, tall metal buildings and bright yellow flyers and murals sped by. A land of metal and man-made machines.

The shuttle jolted to a stop and Meenah frowned slightly, letting go of Calliope’s hand, “This is my stop.” A slight smile, “See you tomorrow, okay?” A slight arch of her eyebrow. 

“Yeah, tomorrow sounds great.” Calliope grinned at her, then let her hand fall to her sides, “Sleep well, we’re going to have an interesting work day tomorrow.” A light wave goodbye.

Meenah chuckled softly and nodded her head, moving off the shuttle and making her slow way towards her building. As she swiped her wrist under the sensor, a cold hand placed itself on her shoulder and made her jump. Whirling around, Meenah’s breath caught in her throat, “Kurloz!” She slapped at his bicep, “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Her face was flushed in embarrassment at how startled he made her.

Kurloz chuckled at her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, “Oooh, I wasn’t all that scary. You’re just jumpy.” His purple eyes sparkled and he hummed as he slowly pulled her towards the elevator. “So, I noticed you were getting along pretty well with your team, that’s nice.”

She nodded, grinning slightly, “Yeah, they’re all nice. Dirk’s very productive, Roxy’s goal oriented, don’t know much about Jane and Jake, but they’re nice and friendly. Calliope….Miss Umbrage, is...nice. Very nice, she rode the shuttle home with me. They also talked to me about surging, and how they all got their more interesting attributes.” As the metal doors shut, she leaned against the back of the elevator car, “Look, you know more about my recovery than I do, so is it good for me to get a surge?” A slight raise of her eyebrow, “I mean, I’m likely to get it anyway, I just wanna know if getting the surge will mess me up.”

Kurloz hummed, shrugging as he pressed her floor’s button. “I say you can get a surge, just so long as you don’t edit your eyes or your torso drastically. Your chest is still healing up-” He paused, leaning slightly closer to look at her better, “Which reminds me, when we get back to your room, I’m going to have to look at your chest wrappings. Make sure that they’re not dirty.”

Meenah pursed her lips, raising her eyebrow, “You got the credentials for that? I don’t wanna get my ass in trouble because I let someone check me out when they don’t know what they’re doing.” 

Kurloz waved her off, “Oh, of course. I was assigned to keep you safe for a reason, I got the sufficient training needed to do all proper checkups that you need. I’ll make sure you’re healthy and not going to get sick. After all, a sick worker is an unproductive worker. If I keep you healthy, I will keep you productive.” He smiled and leaned to tap the end of her nose.

Her brown eyes went crossed as she tried to focus on Kurloz’s finger on her nose, “Good, that’s good. I definitely don’t want to be unproductive.” A pause as she refocused on Kurloz’s body itself. “Which, kinda makes me wanna ask. Have you gotten any surges? Callie got those swirling tats on her cheeks, Jane has the tech implant, Roxy and Dirk got their eye color changed...I don’t know if Jake’s gotten anything done.” A dismissive flap of her hand, “Don’t matter. I just wanna know how common surges are, especially for executives.” 

Kurloz smiled and he opened his mouth. Before he could actually tell her, the elevator doors opened. Placing his finger on his lips, he took her hand and tugged her into her room, shutting the door behind him. “Take your top off, I need to see your injuries. I’ll turn around so you can put your bra on, I just need to see your lower chest and upper back, so you can be as modest as you need.” A slight smirk curled his lips and he turned around. His tanned hands moved to the ends of his own shirt, pulling it over his head and tossing it in the corner, “I check your injuries and you can figure out all the surges that the other executives and I have.”

Meenah nodded, discarding her own top onto her bed. Slowly and carefully, she unwrapped the bandages and winced when her injuries were exposed to the cold air. Pulling her bra back on, she cleared her throat, “I’m decent, Makara.” She sat down on the bed and looked down at the scars running over her chest. They criss-crossed her stomach, raised patches of scar tissue. “What were these from? I know that you told me that there was an accident and I had gotten taken to...to Night Vale wasn’t it?” A slight raise of her eyebrow at him, “But, where did all these scars come from?” 

Kurloz appeared in her vision, crouching down in front of her to slowly run his fingers across her scars. “I’ll explain everything in time, don’t worry Meenah.” A slight prod at the tissue made her wince, “Does it hurt when I touch it or when I prodded it?”

“That’s what you keep saying, but I haven’t gotten any information.” She chewed on her lip for a few seconds, “Only when you prodded it, the touching it just felt like you were touching skin.”

“Meenah, please. It’s only been one day, and you were working for the majority of that day. You can’t blame me for not telling you all the gorey details as you poked and prodded at a tentacle.” He gave a soft chuckle and nodded his head, reaching into his bag and pulling out a jar of cream. Dipping his fingers into it, Kurloz spread the cool cream on her stomach, and she shivered at the temperature difference. “This was prescribed by the doctors who looked after you, apply once daily before sleep. I just thought I could do it for you today.” He grinned up at her, “While I apply this, I’ll answer all your questions.”

A soft smile and she ran her hand through his curling hair, feeling it wrap and tangle around her fingers, “You’re a good friend, Kurloz, I really appreciate what you’ve done for me. But my first question is definitely going to be; what was the accident?”

He took a deep breath, “It...was a lab experiment gone wrong.” His eyes were downcast as he gently massaged the cream into her skin, which was starting to feel numb and tingle slightly. “The machine you were working on exploded, and the shrapnel was deeply embedded in your skin. It was horrible to walk in on...I was just coming in because the lunch bell had rung and you promised me that you’d let me take you out to a restaurant to celebrate a recent breakthrough you had. I came into the room and you were...and you were on the ground. There was so much blood, Meenah, the ceiling had splatters of it.” He frowned slightly and leaned his forehead on her shoulder, “I had to call the emergency services because I couldn’t help you at all.” His fingers moved on her stomach, sweeping across her scars. “That wasn’t the worst part though…” A slight pat on her stomach, “Turn around, I want to see your back.”

Meenah frowned slightly when she heard what happened to her, but she complied. Turning around, she sat down on the edge of the bed, facing the slate grey wall. Her body rocked slightly, just barely staying on the mattress. “I’m sorry you had to go through this. I mean, it was probably worse for me, but I don’t remember any of it, and you do.”

He frowned at her back, the small cuts and scars already mainly healed, but Kurloz couldn’t take the risk of any of them getting infected. So his fingers dipped back into the jar and stroked over the scars, watching the cuts slowly close up. “It’s fine, I’m fine. You’re back now and that’s all that matters. Anyway, like I said, worse things happened after the medics came. I watched them take you away, and I thought that’d be okay. I thought you’d be okay.”

Kurloz took a deep breath, “But during the night, there was a routine system restart. While the system restarted, Night Valers came in. They came in and they _took_ you away from us. From me, from your job! They took you away and then we found you almost a year later. An entire year Meenah, you were gone, presumed dead, for an entire year. I had to change my prescription, take something to help me deal with grief. After all, a grieving executive isn’t all that helpful, nor productive. So, I buried my grief under productivity, like I knew you would want me to. If our situations were reversed, I know what you’d do. You’d do the best thing for the company and work like a good employee.” His fingers kept going on her back, massaging the cream into her back, “But, I needed help to do it. I couldn’t just forget you like that. But like I said, we found you a year later, which was two months ago. You were in worse shape, worse scars on your body and fresh cuts. We had to spend the two months just getting you safe. I begged to see you, Meenah.” He massaged over her cuts and she groaned out at the feeling. “All good? I’m going to wrap them back up okay?”

“Yeah, you’re good. It feels a lot better now, thanks Kurloz.” Meenah smiled, though it turned tense when he wrapped her back up, “It’s good, not too tight. Anyways…” She shifted around on the bed to look him in the eye. “Tell me about the Executive surges.”

Kurloz’s purple eyes sparkled, “Well, I’m sure you can see my eye color, human eyes can’t be this deep of a purple after all.” Meenah sucked on her bottom lip at the pointing out of human. “I wanted to get tattoos of skeletal bones over my actual body, but then we found you, so I put that off. Knowing that I would be out of commission for a while as my body healed up. I wanted to be right at your bedside when you woke up.” His hand moved into hers and squeezed, “And I was. Anyway, since Executives aren’t really daily employees of Crocker, with the day to day schedule that you have, we can often get more extreme additions.” A grin split his face, “Hell, I’m pretty sure one of the scientists I work with, think his name’s Davinci or something along those lines, got orange bird implanted. There are rumors that the owner, the true owner, of Crockercorp got fish fins and gills implanted in her body. They’ve never been confirmed, of course, but it’s food for thought.” Kurloz glanced up at the clock and cursed, “Oh dangit, we always seem to let time get away from us when we talk don’t we?”

Meenah scoffed and nodded her head, “Damn right we do.” She stood up, and wrapped her arms around Kurloz, tucking her head into his neck, “Thanks for being such a good friend, and for getting Roxy the Expedite. I dunno where I’d be without you.”

Kurloz hugged her back, gently and mindful of her wrappings, “You’d still be a great scientist, and I’m just happy I get to watch you get better and better.” He pressed his lips to her forehead, smiling widely, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Having leaned up into the forehead kiss, Meenah sank back down and nodded her head, “I’ll see you there, Kur. Sleep well.” 

“Sleep well.”

As Kurloz left, Meenah went about her evening routine. Washing, brushing her teeth, and changing out of her work clothes. She laid down in bed and swallowed the sleep pills, soon drifting off to a sleepless night.


	7. Chapter 7

The alarm went off in the morning, Meenah’s eyes naturally opening. It was kind of odd, she mused, how quickly she got used to the routine. Though, she was sure that the drug helped with that. The routine was easy to fall into, especially with the pills. A structured routine is very productive after all. A glance at the clock and she moved to get back into her work clothes. 

Slinging her lab coat over her shoulders, Meenah grabbed her tablet from it’s charger as she passed it. A grin twisted her lips as she remembered that Roxy should be on the Expedite regimen today, and set a reminder while on the shuttle to record how it affects her teammate. Her body swayed as the car slowed to a stop outside of her lab, and she fell into line filing out. 

In a proceeding line, Meenah and the other workers scanned their chips and moved towards the elevators. There she was stuck with some strangers, though they all nodded at her like they knew her. Probably just people from before the accident, Meenah thought to herself, shrugging it all off as she asked the person closest to the elevator panel to press her floor.

The ride up was silent, none of the workers talked as the elevator made it’s quiet ascent. When the doors slid open onto the fifth floor, Meenah was allowed an aisle to walk out. A grateful nod at the small crowd as she scanned her wrist and entered the lab.

Meenah’s jaw dropped as she walked in, the hydraulic door closing behind her. In the center of the room, someone had move together all the tables together to create one large one. There was a closed square in the middle, with Roxy stuck inside of it. Her hands moved faster than Meenah could comprehend at first, and even when her eyes focused, she knew her hands were moving faster than what should be possible. The rest of the team was on the outer rim of the tables, but none of their hands were moving on the samples.

She moved next to Dirk, tapping him on the shoulder, “Hey, Strider. What’s-” A flippant gesture at the new structure of the tables- “all this about?”

Dirk grinned at her and spared her a glance through the corner of his eye, “Roxy found this the most productive means of set up. She told us to…” A pause and he elbowed Jake, “What was it she said, English?”

Jake huffed out a laugh, “She told us to, and I quote, ‘stay on your own side of the table and let me work my magic’ all while rocking on her feet and giggling.” His emerald eyes slid to look at Roxy, “Expedite always does this. I worked with her the last time she was on this regimen, which isn’t all that odd, you see. Sometimes, the exects will put just one of the team members on Expedite to see how well they work on the pills. Roxy always acted very energetic and during break times she never stops talking, though she’s always like this.” His fingers tapped in some more information as Roxy did a test. “We’re all working on writing down everything she’s doing, but as you can very well see, it’s a hard job.”

It was true, and rather obvious. Each member on the outside of the circle was at a different station, occasionally pausing to wipe away sweat as their fingers moved on their tablets. Roxy was in constant motion, her hands pouring samples and adjusting the magnifiers on the microscope. “I’m close! I can feel it!” Even her voice was higher pitched and lilting.

A chuckle rippled through the team and they all nodded, murmuring their assent. Meenah just smiled wider. This was all thanks to her. She got Roxy the Expedite, she was the one that made this much progress possible. Meenah allowed her chest to puff up in pride, and she helped Jane write down what Roxy was doing with the skin graft. “We all believe in you, Lalonde. And hey!” Meenah grinned wider, “If you get the DNA out in the week, I’ll take us all out to the bar for drinks. On me!”

The team cheered louder at her promise and they all kept documenting down Roxy’s progress. There was new energy in the room, and Meenah knew that she’ll definitely regret that promise when she checks her account the next day. But at this point? It was worth it to get more samples. 

The rest of the day went like that. All of them writing down exactly what Roxy was doing, and with Roxy making small cheers whenever she got closer to the goal. Lunch period passed in a tense cloud, each of them itching to get back to the lab. If it weren’t for the guards at the entrance to the lab, they’d all have gone before the break was up.

Of course they weren’t allowed to leave early. Meenah knew that there was a reason for it. After all, workers needed the break to be at their full energy. Reason behind it or not, though, it still made them all antsy to return. 

The other half of the day went almost too quickly. Roxy made a few breakthroughs, like figuring out how little pain had to be administered to the splices of tentacle for the main tentacle to writhe (very little), and if the skin cells reacted to bacteria interacting with them (they overtook the bacteria and destroyed them). Another thing that they figured out was that when the base was poked, the tip of the tentacle could shoot out a tar-like substance. It had hit Meenah right in the chest and Jake couldn’t stop his chuckles when he scraped some off of her to test. It took an hour for Jake to finish, but it became clear that the tar-like substance was an ichor.

These breakthroughs gave them more information about the creature itself, but nothing about how to find it or where it comes from. They discussed the possibility of it being aquatic, which was soon shot down by Dirk at the mention that the creature was found in the desert. Jake proposed that the ichor that the tentacle shooted out was the creature’s blood, but Jane elbowed him and reminded the group that they had found evidence of red blood cells in the skin samples.

With little to show for the day, they all submitted their recordings of the testings to Headquarters and set up a corkboard against one of the walls. Pinned up copies of the photos they had taken beforehand and pinned notes they had made describing them. All for the task of figuring out what they were finding, as they let Roxy handle the actual process of finding it.

Meenah groaned softly as she boarded the shuttle next to Calliope. “Well, that was a useless day.” Her face scrunched up in an annoyed frown. Her brown gaze dipped down to the black ichor like substance staining her shirt under her lab coat. 

Calliope gently swatted her shoulder, “Don’t say that! It was a perfectly productive day. We may not have achieved the week’s goal, but it is only day one. I feel that the main issue was Roxy dear getting used to her new dosage. But I’m sure that by tomorrow or the next day, she’ll be right as rain and more focused on extracting DNA rather than just aimless production. Tomorrow and the following day will be great. With Roxy less scattered in her work, she’ll need less supervisors. Therefore, the left over teammates can go back to the chalkboard and start to put the puzzle pieces together on what it is we’re finding.” She gave Meenah a soft smile, and patted her arm, “I’m positive we’ll have a new breakthrough by the rest day.”

She gave her a soft smile and nodded slightly, “You’re a very positive person, Miss Umbrage. That’s very productive of you.” Meenah patted Calliope’s hand, “I hope you’re right, we really need a breakthrough. Our team won’t be able to do anything soon if we don’t get more samples. Even if Crocker can’t capture the creature, they could still potentially grab more material from it.” 

“You're right, I know you and Dirk would like to have more of the tentacles to be able to cut them open. So really, capturing the creature would truly be best.” Calliope's body swayed with the stop of the shuttle and she sighed, “This is your stop, right?”

Meenah nodded, letting go of the pole and joining the line of people exiting the shuttle. “Yeah, it is. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” A slight raise of her eyebrow as she looked behind her.

Calliope waved slightly, smiling and nodding her head, “Of course!” Her words were almost lost in the pound of feet as Meenah walked off the shuffle and joined the line.

Swiping their chips, Meenah and the other workers scanned moved towards the elevators. Buttons of their floors were pressed and they slowly filed out into their respective floors. When it came to hers, she moved out of the car with her hallmates and opened the door to her room. Hanging up her lab coat and changing out of her stained clothes, she slumped onto her bed and exhaled out. The automatic lights had already gone out and Meenah knew that if she didn’t take her pills soon, something bad would happen. She wasn’t sure what would happen, but whenever she thought about going to bed without pills, she felt almost sick. 

So instead, she propped herself up and opened the drawer, grabbing the pill satchel and downing the dark blue pills inside of it. A yawn popped her jaw and she settled back under the blankets, eyes slowly closing. 

Meenah bolted up, gasping as her alarm clock sounded. Throwing the blankets off of her, she stumbled her way to the bathroom and held tightly to the porcelain sink edges. When she looked into the mirror, Meenah noticed that there were the beginnings of dark circles under her eyes. “Fuckin’ shit.” She mumbled out, dragging a hand through her hair. A glance at the clock and she reasoned that a cold shower would help her feel better and she could rush a bit to her job.

After showering, she did feel better. After taking the red pills, she felt great. But one thing kept nagging at the back of her head, why had she been so scared when so woke up. The dark blue pills were manufactured to keep dreams away, for optimum energy conservation, so she couldn't’ve had a nightmare. She chewed on the bottom of her lip as she slipped into the elevator. Her foot tapped a spastic best on the floor as the ear-popping sensation of the elevator’s descent made her nauseous. 

A narrowing of her eyes as she tried to refocus her brain. Today should be the day that Roxy gets the DNA out, and tomorrow is the rest day. A deep breath and she dug her nails into the palms of her hands. Being unfocused in the lab could potentially be dangerous, and it wasn’t something that Meenah could afford to have happen. 

Once she exited the building, Meenah rushed within the crowd to hop onto the shuttle. Grabbing a hand hold, she kept taking her deep breaths, making another note to grab a cup of coffee on her way to the lab. Her teammates could afford to have her not there for a few extra minutes, especially if the consequence was her being more focused and willing to work. 

The shuttle ride seemed to pass faster than normal, since before she knew it, the momentum stopped and she swayed forward. She allowed herself to get moved with the crowd, the mass slowly getting smaller and smaller and people dispersed. Dipping to the side, Meenah grabbed one of the cups of coffee off of a smiling worker and flashed her chip for him to charge, “Thank you.”

“It's my pleasure! Have a productive day!” His light and cheery voice answered back.

She offered a half smile over the rim of her coffee and then scowled slightly. It was bitter, no cream or sugar. A glance around showed that there was none in the cafe. Meenah huffed into her coffee as she turned on her heel and exited the cafe, rushing to her lab. 

What she saw stunned her. The team (sans Roxy) was surrounding the same table set up as before. Roxy was hunched over a microscope as she did something to the slide that Jake’s broad shoulders blocked. Walking in further, Meenah tapped him on the shoulder, “Yo, English, what’s Lalonde doing?”

Jake turned his head just enough to flash her a grin, “She’s close. Turns out getting on the Expedite program gets your sleeping time reduced so she’s been here for hours.” A blind gesture at the stationary computers, where Calliope sat hunched over, “Callie’s been reviewing the cameras, writing down everything that Roxy did while none of us were here.” 

Meenah’s grin widened and she clapped her hands, letting out a whoop, “Really? So that means that by tonight, we’ll have the DNA ready for HQ to search for the creature with.” A light chuckle and she elbowed Jake gently in the ribs, “Guess I have to make good on my promise to buy us all a round on the next restday.”

Jake grinned and nodded, slinging his arm around her shoulders, “You're damn right, you will. Don't worry, I won't drain you account too much.” Emerald eyes glimmered and he elbowed her back, “Come on, let's focus on what's Roxy is getting her nose in!”

Meenah hummed in agreement and turned back to the scientist. Now that she was in front of Jake, she could see that Roxy had tongs on the slide and was slowly tugging something away.

“I found the nucleus! I'm so close, you guys!” Roxy called out, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. Her blonde hair was pulled out of her face in a soft bun. Even though she was turned mostly away from them, Meenah could still see the wide smile stretching her lips.

The team let out a whoop, which was echoed a second late by Calliope. The air now held a tension to it, all four of them fidgeting as they waited for Roxy to extract the DNA. Jane drummed her fingers on the underside of her clipboard. Jake fidgeted with the buttons on his shirt. Dirk tapped his pen back and forth on the table, and Calliope’s leg could be heard bouncing as her heel came into contact with the floor again and again. Meenah leaned forward, drumming her fingers on the table. 

“Come on, come on.” Roxy muttered to herself as she transferred the picked apart cell clump into a test tube filled with an acid and swirled it around with a stick. “Fucking, this better work.” After a few minutes of tenser silence, she slowly drew a pale pink strand out of the vial and carefully transferred it to a slide. Fiddling with the knobs, Roxy peered into the microscope and gently adjusted the slide. “I got it! I fucking got it!” She cheered and pushed back from the desk. Her pink eyes glimmered and she jumped up, pumping the air.

Meenah grinned and clapped her hands, whooping with her. “Awesome! Drinks on me, tomorrow, okay?” Her lips stayed in a wide grin, and she nodded in excitement, “Alright, hope you don’t mind me delegating. But!” Without waiting for Roxy to delegate, Meenah hopped the table and slammed her palm down on the metal table. “Roxy, you put all the DNA you can within a capsule and send it off to HQ. Dirk, you go back to testing the tentacle like we’ve been doing. Don’t do anything stupid, though, we don’t know when or if HQ will capture the creature or even more tentacles. We need to conserve what we have. Jake, go help Calliope scribe down what Roxy did while we were all gone. Jane, go with him to write down what she was just doing, ask her all the questions you need to get satisfactory answers, alright?”

They all gave her nods and she rubbed her hands together. Now’s the time for the fun stuff to begin.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter before the new year! Sorry this has taken so long, writer's block and other pressing stories were calling my name.

Rest day. The word tasted sweet on her lips as she naturally blinked her eyes open, no blaring alarm waking her up. A glance at the numbers and she groaned, throwing her blankets off of her and getting into a more casual attire. Meenah glanced at the lab coat (cleaned of ichor thanks to the dry cleaning services) and grabbed it. She just felt...right with it around her body.

Slipping on a company mandated wristwatch, Meenah checked the time again, noticing that she was almost late for the meetup at the cafe. Cursing to herself, she rushed out the door and into the elevator, telling the person closest to the panel what floor to press.

The horde that exited the elevators was smaller than the ones she’d been apart of before. Less people with less anxious energy. There were no red pills waiting to wake her up, so Meenah stopped at the cafe, grabbing another bitter coffee before heading to their rendezvous spot. When she got there, her entire team was waiting for her, and they greeted her with bright smiles, “Hey, sorry for being late. I’m not used to not having wake up pills.” A slight laugh.

Calliope moved to her side, laughing softly and shaking it her head, “It’s perfectly fine, love. We had a lovely little chat with each other over coffee in your absence, but now that you’re here, we can go!” Grey eyes sparkled at her and soon Meenah felt Callie’s dainty hand slip into hers.

Squeezing it, Meenah grinned wider, “Fabulous.” Then, turning her head to the others, “You’ll have to lead the way. This is my first surge after all.” Brown eyes gleamed at the thought, “I wonder what I’ll get.”

“Anything you get is gunna look perf on ya, Crock 2.” Roxy grinned and joined her on her other side, linking arms with her, “But c’mon, Strider lead the way, you got yours most recently so you gotta show the newbie.”

He rolled his orange eyes and ruffled Roxy’s hair, “We got our surges at the same time and you know it, Lalonde.” Still, Dirk motioned for them to follow him as he grabbed his coffee cup and walked out the door.

Jane and Jake chatted quietly to each other as they followed Dirk, with Meenah, Roxy, and Calliope bringing up the end. Meenah grinned at the two of them, chuckling slightly, “Is this really necessary, girls?”

Calliope squeezed her hand, “Of course it is, silly! Someone has to make sure you’re going the right way and besides, I definitely don’t want you getting lost.” A soft smile and she winked at her.

Meenah could feel her face flush red, and it wasn’t missed by Roxy. She laughed slightly and elbowed Meenah in her ribs, “Well, you’re easily riled up.” Her pink eyes sparkled, and she patted her cheek, “Hopefully we can find a cool surge that’ll make that blush much prettier.” Roxy squeezed her arm.

Meenah couldn’t help it as her cheeks burned brighter, “Roxy, stop, or I’m going to have to invite you out to dinner. “

Roxy grinned at this, leaning forward to raise an eyebrow at Calliope, “Well? Would you be so opposed to me sharing your gal?” Her wandering hand moved lower, “I'm just kidding of course.”

Meenah laughed slightly, her face fully flushed, “Come on, let's.” A pause as her eyes darted between the two girls, “Let's catch up with the others, I wanna go get those surges.” Clearing her throat, she moved forward. Calliope and Roxy shared a grin and stayed silent as the three of them caught up with their group.

“We’re very close, Meenah.” Dirk barely looked over his shoulder to talk to her, “Maybe three more minutes of walking, I think.” He turned his head towards the sky and the buildings that lay ahead, before turning his head to Jake, “Are you going to surge this time? You’re the only one in the team that hasn’t gotten on yet, Meenah excluded for obvious reasons.”

Jake scoffed and shook his head, “Until we all get approved for those Crockercorp jewels, I’m keeping my body all natural and organic.” He ran his hand through his hair, “Besides, there’s nothing I’d want to get currently.”

Roxy opened her mouth to reply before her eyes darted to the left, “There it is!” She squeezed Meenah’s arm, nails digging into her skin. Tugging the girl forward, she strode forward, leading the group, “Oh Meenah! You’re going to have so much fun getting your first surge!” Pink eyes sparkled as she pushed the door open, ushering Meenah inside.

Once inside the building, she gaped at her surroundings. The lights weren’t the harsh white fluorescents she was used to, instead they had been replaced by neon tubes flicking between blue, green, orange, and pink. A laugh opened her lips and she glanced back at her teammates, “The colors look like your eyes!” 

Roxy grinned, reattaching to Meenah’s arm, eyes catching the lights, “You bet they do, Crocker. I actually got the inspo for my color from them.” Tugging her up to the front desk, Roxy turned her attention to the lady at the desk, “Hi, Skylla, can I schedule a surge for our new teammate-” Her voice dropped lower, but not low enough for Meenah to be unable to hear her, “-it’s her first surge and I want to get it done today.”

Skylla’s brown eyes gleamed and Meenah noticed the gold specks implanted into them, “Ah, of course.” There was a soft clattering noise as she grabbed a handheld scanner from a drawer, “Please show your wrist so I can scan your chip and access your account, Miss.”

Roxy waved her off, shaking her head, “Oh no, I’m going to be paying for her.” A sideways grin at her and she elbowed Meenah in the side, “Call it repayment for you getting me that Exe.” A wide grin and she held her arm up for Skylla to scan. “We got on an ASAP, y’know. My second one!”

Skylla’s thin lips curled into a slight smile and she nodded her head, fingers tapping on her keyboard, “That’s nice, Lalonde.” The gold specks flashed and the slight smile turned larger, “Oh, good news. Daraya has a wide enough opening to take your friend.” Reaching over the counter, she grabbed Meenah’s hand and stamped her on the wrist. It was the Virnius sign in jade. “Don’t worry, you’ll like Daraya. Room 2, next!”

Meenah flashed her a smile and moved down the hall as Roxy took her place in front of the desk, chattering away happily with the lady. Shaking her head as she chuckled, her fingers brushed over the stamp as she pushed open the door labeled for her. “Daraya? Are you here?”

Daraya turned out to be a middle-aged, dark skinned woman with an undercut. Her voice was slightly rough as she nodded and gestured to the chair, “Yeah, that’s me. Is this your first surge or can I skip everything informational and just get onto it?”

She moved to sit down in the chair and she shook her head, “I’ve never done this before, so could you explain it?”

She nodded and moved to sit next to Meenah, “Alright, I’ll give you the brass taxes of it all. I’m Daraya Jonjet, I am licensed to be a Body Modification Specialist, or a BMS as most people will call it. Depending on your chosen modification, you’ll been under from anywhere in the range of one hour to five. I suggest getting a low level one for your first surge, just to get your body used to it.” 

Meenah chewed on her bottom lip, “Alright, well do you suggest anything?”

Daraya nodded and grabbed a book from the counter, “Those are prescription, right? If you want, I can fix your eyesight so you don’t need those.” A glance at the tablet screen implanted in her wrist, “Yeah, you’ll definitely want to do away with those. With you being a scientist and dealing with chemicals, you don’t need those slipping off in the middle of something and having them get doused in acid.” She raised her eyebrow, the helix in it catching the light, “Do you want me to change your eye color while I’m at it? I’m sure that with a group like the Alphas, you seem pretty outta place with those boring brown eyes of yours.”

A scowl twisted her lips and she raised her eyebrow, “One, that was rude. Two, the Alphas?” Meenah pursed her lips.

She nodded, “Yes, the Alphas. That’s the nickname that’s been given to the rest of your team. Roxy Lalonde, Dirk Strider, Jane Crocker, and Jake English. Calliope Umbrage is also sometimes included in the definition, but not always. It’s mainly those four. With their matching eye surges. Pink, orange, cyan, green, they’re all unnaturally bright.” Daraya flashed her a grin, “If you want me to change your eye color, now is the time to tell me. Once I’m in your eyes, I’ll have the chance to change it to a similarly bright color. You could join the Alpha’s, Meenah Crocker.”

“I…” She paused, eyebrows furrowing. “Yeah sure, give me gold eyes. That’s nice and bright, and it’s not copying anyone else in the team.” A nod of her head as she laid back in the chair as it started to recline and rise up, “So you’ll fix my eyes and fix the color?”

Daraya nodded, leaning over her as she strapped an oxygen mask to her face, “Of course I will. It’ll take two hours, so get comfortable.” 

Meenah’s vision started to warp and wane away. The anesthetic quickly going to work on fogging up her brain. The last thing she saw was Daraya’s oddly green eyes looming over her, and everything went black.

She thought that she’d black out completely after the anesthetic kicked in, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, she was kept semi conscious, but she couldn’t feel anything in her body. After a few seconds of fruitless trying, Meenah realized she couldn’t move her limbs at all. 

It was silent save for a buzzing noise, like white noise from a radio. The noise seemed to skip and fritz, slowly getting clearer and clearer. “Me-” a buzz of noise, “-nah.” A shorter skip of static and words came out clearer, “Finally, I don’t know why I couldn’t reach you before! You’ve been gone a few nights Meenah, I should’ve been able to-” Another buzz of static, “-you earlier.” 

She couldn’t respond, couldn’t ask this unfamiliar voice why it knew her name. 

“Meen-” A short skip of static, “Are you oka-” The voice disappeared again, but resurfacing, “Meenah don’t leave. I need to find you. Need to-” Another buzz. “-help you. It’s not safe where you are-” The static buzzed out the rest of their sentence. 

When the buzz subsided, the voice returned clearer, but farther away. “I can’t stay l-” Louder buzz. “I don’t know when I can contact you again. Sleeping isn’t work-” His voice started to get fainter, “Something’s interfering. Don’t forget me-” The voice cut out and didn’t concern, leaving Meenah alone with the static buzz.

 _Ironic_ She thought, _A voice I don’t know telling me not to forget it_

With no voice giving her a way to measure time, Meenah was stuck floating silently in the static noise until the noise started to fade and she came back to consciousness.

Daraya was there grinning at her, stripping off her gloves and putting them into the disposal container, “Welcome back to the waking world, Miss Crocker. Check yourself out in the mirror.”

Meenah flashed her a smile and she nodded, blinking her eyes as she realized something. She could actually see without her glasses. Perfect 20/20 vision. Her lips stretched into a wide smile as she picked up a mirror and looked at her new eyes.

The sight drew a gasp. Meenah could barely recognize herself. She was so used to her deep brown eyes that the now bright gold was shocking to her. 

“I hope you’re happy with it, I’ve already sent the charge to your friend’s account. We’re a no refunds organization so you’ll have to pay for another surge.” Daraya drawled out as she washed tools that Meenah didn’t truly want to look at.

She shook her head, “No, no, I like it. It’s good. Is there anything I need to be wary of? Considering you did just do...whatever you did to my eyes?”

Daraya’s back was turned to her, but Meenah could see her shake her head, “Not really. It’s a rest day and you have the entire day for your eyes to adjust. Be wary of standing over chemicals for the next few days though, play it safe. But in four days, all side effects should go away. If they don’t, well, take a business card so you know who to call with complaints.” She turned around, placing the cleaned tools into their places, “That’s what I’m legally required to say, so please make your exit to the waiting room to wait for your friends.”

Meenah rolled her eyes, but followed her instructions. Exiting the operation room, she followed her previous steps to the waiting room. There, Roxy and Calliope were already there and waiting for her.

Roxy ran up to her, pink eyes sparkling as she noticed what Meenah had done, “Oh! Meenah your new eyes look amazing. It’s like we’re all matching with our bright colors, we look like a real team now!” Without letting her interject, Roxy stepped back brushing her hair back to reveal her now-pointed ears, “I got these done within an hour. Thought it’d be pretty!”

She laughed slightly, reaching out to gently brush her fingers across Roxy’s new ears, “Wow, Roxy, these look, amazing. Did the rest of them get anything done?”

Roxy shook her head, looping her arm through Meenah’s, “Nope, they sort of dispersed. But that’s okay.” Her hand moved to rest on her chest, and she smiled up at Meenah, “It just means that we can go on our little dinner date now, all together.” 

Meenah grinned, a light blush rising to her cheeks, “Well, since you’ve brought it up. Then show me the way to the restaurant.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow,,,,4 months no update. I'm so sorry I just had to get my school stuff in order and also had horrible writer's block! But now, I've figured out where to go from now, so expect another update in less than 4 months,,hahah.

“So, Meenah, how was the date?” Kurloz’s dark eyes sparkled as he patted the space beside her on the bed.

Meenah’s face was flushed with the cold and the wine she had drank, and she jumped as soon as she heard him speak, “God, why dontcha just give me a damn heart attack.” Slipping her coat off, Meenah hung it on the hook. “Look, the date was nice. Callie and Roxy were…” Her blush darkened and she let a giggle escape her lips, “...nice. They were very, very nice.”

Kurloz stood up and moved to wrap his arm around Meenah’s waist and lead her to sit down on the bed, “Oh no, you’re not going to get away with giving me just that! Expand on it!”

Shaking her head, Meenah glanced up at the clock, “Isn’t it almost curfew? I don’t think I’d have time to get into it all.”

With a dismissive flick of his hand, Kurloz squeezed Meenah’s in his free one, “Executives don’t have to listen to curfew, and if you’re in a room with an executive, you are excused from going to bed at the mandated time. Now spill!”

Meenah grinned and pulled her legs up onto her bed, shifting to face him as she rested her elbows on her knees, “Well, we went to that Italian place, Little John’s-”

She was interuppted by Kurloz saying in a dead monotone, “No one does a pizza like Little John’s-” He leaned in, almost touching her nose with his, “No one.”

Leaning back from him, Meenah offered an awkward chuckle, scratching the back of her neck, “Yeah, yeah, funny thing is, Roxy and Callie did the exact same thing when they said the name. I get it’s the tagline, but do you have to say it every time the brand is mentioned?”

Kurloz nodded, raising his eyebrow, “Of course, I thought that would be obvious. It’s company mandated, so I’d suggest that you get used it. I wouldn’t want to be forced to retrained you, that would surely put a damper on our friendship. If you remembered anything at the end of it of course.” His face brightened up, “Oh but no more about hypotheticals, tell me more about the date!”

Drumming her fingers on her thighs, Meenah nodded, “Okay okay. So once we got to the restaurant, we were seated, yah know. There was some concern over allergies, and also with the fact that we don’t order our own food and instead it just gets delivered to us a few minutes after we get seated. But it was…” A soft blush rose to her cheeks, “Nice. They were both so pretty too, Kur! Roxy had her hair done up so you could see the pointed ears she had gotten, and Calliope’s dress sparkled under the lights. Oh Kur, I’m so happy I went on the date.”

He reached over and squeezed her shoulders, “That’s great! Oh, good workplace relationships are the key to productivity and I’m so glad you’ve found your niche after that accident had taken you away from us for those months. Oh and once Roxy’s DNA search comes back I’m positive everything will be looking up! Not only will we have forged stronger friendships, but we can also do away with that bothersome inhuman monster that’s been trying to destroy our mobile research stations. Added bonus to the last thing: we’ll bring him back in for testing and you can have your very first live experimentation! Trust me, Meenah, live experimentation is so much more fun than just doing tests on separated tissue!”

Meenah grinned, teeth flashing in the automatically dimming lights, “Oh! That’s right! We’re waiting for the tests to come back and then we could gain more samples!” Her grin faded into a more bemused expression and she tilted her head, “Live...experimentation?”

Kurloz frowned slightly and reached over to prop the corners of Meenah’s mouth back up into a smile, “That reminds me, CrockerCorp wanted me to remind you that you should always be hitting all fifteen points of a perfect employee smile when in public, it’s company policy after all.” He gestured to the nightstand, “I left you a pamphlet for you to read on your way into work tomorrow, please try to get at least six points down or I will have to reprimand you. Anyway, yes live experimentation! We aren’t going to kill the monster, that would be a terrible waste of potential and also a horrible waste of material and insight that we could gain off of it!”

“Yeah, no no I get that. But...I’m just concerned with the live experimentation stuff.” Meenah rubbed her upper arm, “I’m...Kurloz, I’m a biologist. I don’t think I’ve ever done experimentation on something that’s still...you know, moving. And I’m concerned with my capability to remain entirely impartial, especially if the thing can speak or make noises of pain.”

Kurloz clucked his tongue in soft disappointment and patted Meenah’s cheek, “Oh...right I forgot that you lost your memory.” His eyes dropped down to the floor and he sighed, “You don’t remember being one of best biologists that Crockercorp had, and you don’t remember all those days and nights spent bent over still wriggling specimens. I’m sure your memories will soon come back, and then you’ll remember the easiness of experimenting on living things as well as dead things.” His smile came back and his eyes refocused on hers, “Tomorrow’s the day, we’ll know if anything came of that pill you got from me.” A squeeze of Meenah’s shoulder, “Get some rest,” Kurloz stood up and started walking for the door, and paused in the open doorway, “Read that pamphlet, I want you hitting all 15 points of a perfect smile in a day or two.”

Meenah nodded, moving to change into night clothes and lay in bed. Opening the bedside drawer, Meenah barely glanced at the pamphlet as she grabbed the pills that force her into a heavy, immediate sleep. Knocking them back with no water, she slumped into bed, eyelids already growing heavy.

When she woke up, she got to see the clock click to exactly 5:30, and she took down the pink pills sitting on her bedside table. Sitting up in bed, Meenah grabbed the pamphlet and examined it. Emblazoned on the front was a smiling employee of Crockercorp, with red, bolded words labeling it “15 MARKS OF A PRODUCTIVE SMILE”. 

Meenah resolved to look at it on the train ride, and stuffed it into her the pocket of her lab coat (which was still hanging up on a hook). It only took her the mandated five minutes to get fully prepared for the day, and she was soon seated on the train and focusing on one of the mirrors. Trying so very hard to get all those points of a perfect smile down, Meenah was startled when she was tapped on the shoulder as the train stopped. “Oh, thank you.” She nodded, grateful at the person as she allowed herself to be pushed with the crowd towards her job.

She stopped at the same coffee boy she did the last time she went into her job, and thanked him with a (now improved) smile, “Thank you for the coffee.”

The empty stare of the boy greeted her and he chirped out, “That’s a lovely smile, and have a productive day!”

Meenah’s smile only widened (point 3 of a productive smile is the wideness of it) and her gait took on a sort of skip as she fished her lanyard out of her pocket and swiped herself into her lab. 

Poking her head into the lab, she called out, “Hey guys! Anything come of- oof!” The rest of her sentence was cut off when strong arms wrapped around her as she was lifted into the air and spun around. Her legs flailed for a few seconds before she recognized the green tie and she wrapped her arms around him, “Jake? I’m guessing this is good news?”

“Only the very best, Miss Crocker The Second!” Jake carried her over to the lab tables before setting her down. “Crockercorp found the beast! They’ve sent a team out to capture it this morning and have extended this project indefinitely.” His emerald green eyes sparkled, “We have full permission and authority for what happens to the thing when we’ve finished with the thing!” He pumped his fist in the air, whooping so loud it echoed.

As she turned around, she saw the rest of her team in similarly good spirits. Roxy was crying (not enough to mess up her perfect eyeliner and mascara though) in Jane’s arms and laughing in between wheezes. Jane clung tightly to Roxy’s shoulders and was looking like she couldn’t believe the good fortune they had come into. Even Dirk had a rare company approved smile on. 

Meenah clasped her hands and gasped, rocking on her heels, “Really? We’re going to have the full creature in our lab soon?”

Dirk nodded, reaching to grab a clipboard holding a memo and flipped through some of the pages, “Oh yeah, C.C. says if all goes well, and it probably will, the beast could be here in one to two days. And that we should spend this day getting a room ready for containment. A room away from the main one, where we don’t have to always look at it.” Looking up from the clipboard, Dirk raised his eyebrows at the lab group, “So? Shall we get started?”

Jake punched the air again and whooped in agreement, with the others of the team soon following his example and copying him. The day wound down from there, with Jake helping Jane weld down chains in a dark room that was originally used for developing pictures. (“It’ll help us figure out just how bright the thing’s bioluminescence is.” Dirk had reasoned). Dirk was sketching it all out, and since he had the most physical technological knowledge, took the task of delegating.

“Hey Dirk?” Meenah tapped him on the shoulder, and when he gave a noise of wonder, she continued, “Should we add more than just four manacles? I mean we’ve pretty thoroughly figured out that it’ll have more than just four limbs.”

Dirk flipped through the memo and nodded, “Right, yeah. Get Jane and Jake to added varying ones of thickness and length to the back wall, I need to go talk to your friend Kurloz about getting some serums for experimenting on how human...or how little human this thing is.” A nod at her before he walked off towards where Kurloz stood, surveying them. 

Meenah nodded and moved towards the dark room.

Hours later, when the sun was supposed to be low in the sky, and when they were mandated to go home, Meenah was riding the train again. Studying the pamphlet and crooking the corners of her lips upwards and allowing her lips to pull tight against her teeth. (Corners being point 1, tight lips being 2, bright teeth being 15). She was getting there, she was getting there.

As she moved towards her apartment, her home, Meenah was struck with a phantom pain. It started in her neck, and moved down her body until she had to prop herself on a wall as she shivered and shook in agony. Her vision went white and she bit down on her bottom lip until she tasted blood.

A word ripped through her mind like it was made of paper, leaving tatters in its wake, “NO!”

Meenah’s vision slowly returns to her and she found herself on the ground. “Oh...shit. Guess I blacked out.” She pushed herself back up onto her feet and continued on her way to her bedroom and got ready. As she settled into bed and downed her pills, another thought (a softer thought this time) flashed through her head, “ _Kankri_.” But soon, that was tugged away by the incoming tidal wave of sleep. Tomorrow is a new day.


	10. Chapter 10

Today is the new day, and yet it started like any other. Wake up at 5:30, get dressed, take her pill, get on the train, practice her smile. Even though it had only been a matter of days since she could remember having this schedule, sinking into it was as easy as if it were a warm bath. Comforting and easy on the mind.

Still, today some things were different. Like the nervous and constant bounce of her leg on the ground on the train, how her hands crumbled and uncrumpled the Smile pamphlet. The strained nature of the smile she gave the coffee boy, and how her pace sped up as she neared the lab. 

“Guys?” Meenah called to her team before she had pushed the door open, and the instant she did, her wrist was grapped and she was tugged inside.

Roxy’s familiar bob of blonde hair greeted her with her similarly familiar laugh, “It came! Late last night, or maybe it was early this morning, I’m not too sure. But all I know is that I had to sign so many things when I came in, and had to help some of the Crocker workers put it in it’s chains. Seriously, I’m not sure what I was expecting but it certainly isn’t that. The thing kept thrashing and screaming as we locked it up, one of the workers had to sedate it.” Just barely a pause for her to take a breath, “They left us a few boxes, _boxes_ Meen, of sedatives and syringes. I’m not sure how long they’re expecting this project to take, but it seems like a long time.”

Interrupting Roxy before she could continue on, Meenah frowned slightly, “Or maybe the beast is stronger than the Corp previously thought, so we’ll need more sedatives for a shorter amount of time.”

Stopping in her tracks (almost making Meenah crash into her), Roxy nodded in thought, “Yes….perhaps. You see, this is why our team needs you. You help balance me out.”

Meenah laughed and squeezed Roxy’s hand, “Yes yes, I’m your equalizing force and all that. Now c’mon, Lalonde! Show me the monster! I wanna see what I’ve been dissecting all this time.”

“Okay, okay! Hold your horses, Meens!” A playful huff and Roxy turned her back on her to continue dragging her towards the containment area they had set up the previous day. 

Swiping in, Roxy pushed Meenah inside and splayed her arms in the direction of the huddled mass in the center of the room, “Here’s the weird thing, it keeps-”

She was cut off as the mass moved with a sickening squelching sound. Dozens of tentacles unfolded and dropped, lifeless, to the sides. With the tentacles out of the way, Meenah could see the humanoid form of it. It was tall, and almost unnaturally thin, and when it tilted it’s head up, it’s cheekbones were prominent. It eyes widened, showing the unnaturally thin, red irises against black sclera. It opened its mouth, light from above flashing on it’s sharp teeth as it warbled out, “M- Meennnahhhh.” The voice was slow, most likely from the sedatives running through its veins. 

Meenah felt her own eyes widen when she heard her name and she turned to Roxy, “Did any of you guys mention my name?”

Roxy shook her head, pink eyes gleaming, “Nope, once it woke up it started calling for you. We dunno how it figured out your name, or why it was calling for you specifically. It-”

Again, the creature cut her off. “I told you….my name’s Kankri.”

The name sent a chill down her spine, the same name she had heard right before she had gone to sleep. Patting Roxy on the shoulder, Meenah glanced around the room until she found a tray of medical tools, “Why don’t you go….wait by the door and get everyone ready to meet our newest...member? I want to experiment a bit, nothing too bad, don’t worry.”

Roxy chuckled and patted her on the back, her hand lingering there, “Yeah, sure, Meens.” Turning her back on the two, Roxy paused by the door and looked over her shoulder, “And Meenah?”

 

A hum of acknowledgement from Meenah.

“Two days ago….that was really nice, we should do something like that again.”

Meenah felt her smile grow (whiteness. Check. Wideness. Check. Perfect.) and she nodded at Roxy, “Yeah, of course,” before grabbing the tray of surgical tools and settling down behind her specimen, “Hold still, this _might_ hurt.”

As soon as he heard the clink of metal, Kankri recoiled and hissed. His iris grew larger as his pupils turned to cat-like slits. Thanks to the sedatives, his movements were slow and restricted by the chains, and when he spoke all he could get out was a sleepy, “N-no.” An auto-injector pumped more sedative in him and slowly his pupils dilated. “ _Please_ Meenah, you...you know me.” He could feel his eyelids getting heavy and shook his head to stay awake, "..You remember.. right?" He lifted his head enough to look at her out of the corner of his eye, his sigh escaping as a weak 'ah'. "It-It's.. It's me, Meenah. It's Kankri."

“I certainly don’t know you,” Meenah’s tone stayed clinical, reserved as she gathered a few reinforced test tubes and a petri dish. “I’m certain I would remember meeting someone who looks…like you do.” She wrinkled her nose in contempt that shown through her voice. “But really-” Her tone changed, still clinical, but more excited, “-you’re so….scientifically interesting. With your knowledge of my name and your…extremities.”

 

His face twisted and he scowled, “What did _they do to you?_ How do you not remember me? Do you...do you think I’m lying about knowing you?” Kankri’s voice almost shook, but the sedatives kept it from being more than a tremble, “"Please.. don't act like you don't remember. O-Or that I'm some hideous creature for your dissections. I'm not a frog!” He had almost reached hysteria before his eyes lidded and he let out a soft groan as the emotions were dulled down, “I’m not more...no more anomalous than you are...or you _were_.” 

Meenah laughed, throwing her head back as she carefully picked out a pair of scissors, “Of course you aren’t a frog, you’re much too interesting for that. The only reason we dissect frogs is to figure out anatomy, but the reason _we_ dissect you is for the most noble of causes: knowledge!” Her gold eyes sparkled and she rubbed a few strands of his hair between her thumb and forefinger, “you've just been causing a bunch of trouble for my company, and I, thankfully, got chosen to be on the lucky team of scientists dedicated to finding out....exactly _what_ you are.”

“You know me...please Meenah.”

“I most certainly do not.” Meenah punctuated the sentence with a sharp _snip!_ of the scissors, severing a tip of one of the tentacles. The snipped piece landed in the petri dish (which was then set aside) and she caught a few drops of his blood in the test tube. “We’re nothing alike, and you best keep that in mind.”

Kankri’s body contorted in pain, and he screamed out, the glass on the single window leading to the outside quivering. “We're more alike than you'll _ever_ know. And I'm _sure_ you won't figure out what I am. Not without _killing me first_.” Though his mind was clouded with drugs, he kept venom in his words. “How much are you cutting off today, _Miss Scientist?_ ”

When the scream made the glass quiver, Meenah quickly scrawled that down on her forearm in smeared ink. She took her sweet time in answering, instead opting to press a burning iron to the wound to cauterize it. Though he couldn’t see it, she was wearing a condescending smirk, "Oh, not much I don't think. I mean, me personally I'll probably be testing this end for the day. I think someone else in the team might come interrogate them," Behind him, she grinned and leaned closer, "I'd comply if I were you."

“Or what? You’ll kill me? Oh no how horrible.” Meenah wasn’t the only one who could use snideness and sarcasm when met with annoyances. He began to curl back into himself, tentacles arranging themselves on his back to tie within themselves. “Leave me, I’m in no mood for this.”

“You’re in no place to make orders and besides-” A pat on his head, “-there are far worse things than death.” Her joints popped as she rose to her feet, grabbing the samples she had collected and tried to not let her hands shake. Meenah was determined to not let Kankri see how much his words had unnerved her. As she exited his holding chamber, she whispered to herself, “A scientist is always fine, always.”

Meenah found that she was so involved with thinking about what Kankri had said (after, of course, passing the samples off to her team for testing), that she didn’t notice Kurloz Makara creeping up behind her. “Meenah-” He paused as she jumped in her seat, almost toppling off the stool. When she regained her balance, he continued, “-come with me. We need to talk.”

Standing up, Meenah saved her work and closed the computer, “Okay, anything wrong?”

A flick of his hand and he dismissed her concerns, “No, nothing with you.” Kurloz placed his hand on the small of her back and led Meenah out of the lab and towards the cafeteria. Instead of entering, he took them down a lonely hallway where he scanned them in, “Executive’s cafe, we need the privacy.”

Meenah nodded, “Okay, yeah makes sense. But, seriously, Kur, what’s up?”

Kurloz didn’t answer her answer until he had closed the door behind them and motioned for her to sit down at one of two chairs, “It’s that creature Corp brought in, it worries me.”

She tilted her head at him, the start of a frown starting to tug at the corners of her lips, “The creature? What about him?”

“ _It_. Not him.” He dragged his hand through his wild, dark mane, “That’s what I was worried about. No matter how human it might look, it’s all a lie.” Intense purple eyes met unsure gold ones, “Don’t trust a single thing it says. It may know your name-”

“He-” She cut herself off and restarted, “It did. It called me Meenah the second I entered.”

“It has mind reading capabilities, or so our field scientists tell me. It’ll try to get in your head, don’t let it.” Kurloz reached across the small table to squeeze Meenah’s shoulder, “Be strong, be a scientist. Just treat it as another experiment, something _less_ than you and I.”

Meenah took a few seconds to think about it; mind swirling with how desperate the creature had seemed when it first saw her. How it begged to be called Kankri and flinched when she talked all clinical. Then, she made the mistake of meeting Kurloz’s wild eyes, and the thoughts faded from focus. Kurloz was right after all, it was all a trick and Meenah needed to stay impartial, “So I’m not being taken off of the project?”

Kurloz threw his head back in a laugh, his shirt moving so Meenah could see the hints of white ink below his collar, “Oh Meenah! Do you really think Corp would _ever_ take one of our best and brightest scientists off of a project because we didn’t think you could handle it? No, of course not! They just wanted me to warn you about the dangers of the beast. Unless…” He raised his eyebrow at her, “You want to be taken off the project?”

“No!” Her reaction was immediate, hands being thrown up in emphasis, “No, trust me. I know the things not human and I will conduct myself in the appropriate manner.” 

Kurloz’s smile was sharp and he nodded, “We’ll make an Executive of you yet, Meenah.”


End file.
